--- In [email protected], "coulsong2001" <ge...@...> wrote:
> --- In [email protected], "PaliGap" <compost1uk@> wrote: > ... > > > I don't think the Turing test helps. Barry may look > > and act in a way that is indistinguishable from a > > regular human being - but the question of whether > > there IS such a thing as "being Barry" is a fact about > > the world (either true or false) regardless of whether > > or not anyone can possibly tell. > > This is often referred to as the 'zombie' problem. I've just read a book by > Susan Blackmore called 'Conversations on Consciousness' (just google it) in > which Blackmore interviews a whole bunch of top consciousness researchers. > She asks all of them if they think zombies could exist - i.e. she asks if > there were a robot that could behave indistinguishably from a person do they > think the robot would necessarily be conscious, or would there be "nothing > that it was like to be it". > > The interviewees give a fascinating range of answers to this question (+ > other ones). I'd strongly recommend the book. > > Geoff > Sounds good Geoff. Am currently reading her "10 Zen Questions". Brilliant in some ways. OTH I can't quite *get* some of the ways she sees some things. Early on she discusses trying to ask yourself the question "Am I conscious now?". When you ask yourself that question, she says, it feels as though you just suddenly "wake up". Mmm... is that right? Seems to me you're lost in something (e.g. typing a post), then you ask her magic question, and... You're just focussed on something else! (The crazy coot describes how she has all sorts of post-it notes with the magic question stuck everywhere - on her fridge, in the car, whatever). "Am I conscious now?" "Am I conscious now?"
