On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 9:29 AM, Roger <rclo...@verizon.net> wrote: > Hi John Clark > > > 1) I can experiencre redness (a qualitative property) while computers > cannot, > all they can know are 0s and 1s. >
This statement suggests to me that you are not familiar with the levels of abstraction that are common in computer programming. Your statement is equivalent to saying: "The human brain can't tell good wine from bad, it is made of atoms, and all atoms are aware of are inter-atomic forces." It ignores the cell structures, the inter-neuronal connections, the large scale structures of the brain. All the neurons know are 1's and 0's (are my neighbors firing or not?) yet the very complex large scale structures of neurons can be aware of much more intricate patterns. The same is true of computer programs. A computer program might be able to tell if a picture is of a man or woman, this certainly requires more than just knowing 1's and 0's. While at its most fundamental level, a computer program manipulates and compares 1's and 0's, you can build any system on top of this. Consider that redness does not course its way down your optic nerve. All your brain receives is a digital flickering of electrical pulses from nerve cells, not unlike a Morse code sent down a telegraph wire. At some level of description, the input of redness to your brain is nothing but 0's and 1's. Google's self driving cars know to stop at a red light and go on green. Can you be so certain that these cars cannot see some kind of difference between red and green? Even though the experience might be quite different from our experience of it, the car (if it had reflection and intelligence) might similarly struggle to explain how red is different from green, or how it can know they are fundamentally different. Jason -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
