Assuming the program has a state and that state changes in response to its inputs, then it seems reasonable to say the program is conscious in some elemental way. What is it conscious "of", though? I'd say it's not conscious of anything outside of itself, in the same way we are not conscious of anything outside of ourselves. We are only conscious of the model of the world we build. You might then say it's conscious of its internal representation, or its state.
On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 4:29 PM Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > It is quite easy, I think, to define a program that "remembers" (stores > and later retrieves ( information. > > It is slightly harder, but not altogether difficult, to write a program > that "learns" (alters its behavior based on prior inputs). > > What though, is required to write a program that "knows" (has awareness or > access to information or knowledge)? > > Does, for instance, the following program "know" anything about the data > it is processing? > > if (pixel.red > 128) then { > // knows pixel.red is greater than 128 > } else { > // knows pixel.red <= 128 > } > > If not, what else is required for knowledge? > > Does the program behavior have to change based on the state of some > information? For example: > > if (pixel.red > 128) then { > // knows pixel.red is greater than 128 > doX(); > } else { > // knows pixel.red <= 128 > doY(): > } > > Or does the program have to possess some memory and enter a different > state based on the state of the information it processed? > > if (pixel.red > 128) then { > // knows pixel.red is greater than 128 > enterStateX(): > } else { > // knows pixel.red <= 128 > enterStateY(); > } > > Or is something else altogether needed to say the program knows? > > If a program can be said to "know" something then can we also say it is > conscious of that thing? > > Jason > > -- > 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 view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUgmPiCz5v4p91LAs0jN_2dCBocvnh4OO8sE7c-0JG%3DuwQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUgmPiCz5v4p91LAs0jN_2dCBocvnh4OO8sE7c-0JG%3DuwQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAMy3ZA_kzDBO7wXrgXJ36bOJmFo6cNv8pxYzt6GujRcc92Vy%3DQ%40mail.gmail.com.
