On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 3:21 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > Rex Allen wrote: >> On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 1:53 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Science advances in small steps that often depend on technology. I think >>> the next 'hard' question that has some chance of being answered is, what >>> information processes are necessary and sufficient to produce human-like >>> conscious behavior. >>> >> >> Does the word "conscious" really fit there? So there is the question >> of how to implement a physical system that can be interpreted as >> producing human-like behavior. >> >> And then there is the further question of whether the production of >> this behavior is accompanied by "consciousness". >> >> I can configure physical systems in such a way that to me it >> represents something. For instance I can write software to run on a >> physical computer that produces outputs that to me represent "game >> characters" or something. With sufficiently clever software, I may >> interpret the outputs of the computer to be "behavior" that is more or >> less "human-like". >> >> But my interpretation may be doing all the work here. I may be >> deluding myself into believing that there is consciousness associated >> with the actions of the physical system I call a computer...when in >> fact there is no such thing there. The appearance of "conscious >> behavior" in the computer could be an illusion. Probably it would be. > > It could be that other people are not conscious too.
Indeed. Certainly the people that I observe around me *seem* to me to be conscious, but I don't know that they actually are, or if they even exist outside of my perceptions of them. But, it seems prudent to act as though they are conscious and do exist. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
