Back in the 80s Hans Moravec, author of "Mind Children: The Future of AI", and I used to argue constantly about the nature of consciousness. I forwarded Russ' post to him after decades without our communicating. Here is his reply in its entirety.
"Hi Frank, Surely the position that emotions arise in the cortex is a straw man, I don't know anyone who argues that. Reasoning rationalizes the drives, doesn't cause them. That doesn't mean a reasoning AI can't someday simulate emotions, like an actor or author. Hans We worked in the Robotics Institute. Neither of us wastes words apparently. Frank --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, Feb 6, 2021, 6:17 PM Russ Abbott <[email protected]> wrote: > About to be published. > > From a review > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/05/the-hidden-spring-by-mark-solms-review-the-riddle-of-consciousness-solved> > by Oliver Burkeman: > > Burkeman: Using poignant case studies of neurology patients – including > children born with brain damage, yet plainly still capable of sadness and > joy – [Solms] argues persuasively that consciousness ultimately arises not > in the cortex, the seat of advanced intelligence, but in the more primitive > brainstem, where basic emotions begin. > > Russ: In other words, consciousness exists far down the tree of life. > > Burkeman: To the best of my understanding, the gist [of the book] is that > feelings are a uniquely effective and efficient way for humans to monitor > their countless changing biological needs, in extremely unpredictable > environments, to set priorities for action and make the best choices so as > to remain within various bounds – of hunger, cold and heat, physical > danger, social isolation, etc – outside of which we can’t survive for long. > Doing all that without feelings, and doing it as rapidly as survival > requires, would take so many computational resources that it would lead to > a “combinatorial explosion”, demanding levels of energy a human could never > muster. > > Here's Nick Lane's blurb on Amazon > <https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Spring-Journey-Source-Consciousness/dp/0393542017/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8>: > (If you know Nick Lane, you know he is worth listening to.) > > "At last the emperor has found some clothes! For decades, consciousness > has been perceived as an epiphenomenon, little more than an illusion that > can't really make things happen. Solms takes a thrilling new approach to > the problem, grounded in modern neurobiology but finding meaning in older > ideas going back to Freud. This is an exciting book." > ― Nick Lane, author of *The Vital Question* > > > -- Russ Abbott > Professor, Computer Science > California State University, Los Angeles > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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