On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 3:12 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote:
>> But in 1859 EVERYBODY could and DID assume that if something behaved >> intelligently then it was conscious, that's why they thought their fellow >> human beings were conscious when they were not sleeping or dead. And nobody >> had any problem with that idea until computers came along, but after that >> some were disturbed by what the confluence of that idea and computers >> produced, so despite the fact that it was contrary to all logic they >> decided that it just can't be true. > > > > The probably saw some logic in a distinction between things made of > silicon and copper and things made of flesh and blood. > In 1859 nobody except perhaps for Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace thought that a machine could ever have anything to do with intelligence much less consciousness, so yes, they made a strong distinction between things made of silicon and copper and things made of flesh and blood, but they made a even stronger distinction between skin that was white and skin that was black. They believed that no matter how brilliantly a person behaved if his skin was black then he wasn't *REALLY* intelligent. And today most flesh and blood things believe that no matter how brilliantly a thing behaves if its made of silicon and copper and not flesh and blood like itself then it's not *REALLY* intelligent. The idea that something could behave intelligently but not be intelligent was self contradictory then and it's self contradictory now. John K Clark > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
