The myth of computer consciousnesss and intelligence

2013-12-10 Thread Roger Clough
The myth of computer consciousnesss and intelligence

People have been trying to create perpetual motion machines
for centuries, but nobody has succeeded, I believe because
of energy losses. The problem with making computers
truly intelligent I believe is also impossible, because
the final stage of perception must be subjective (free of symbols),
not objective (described in symbols). In particular,

Computers can only deal with descriptive knowledge (symbols), 
which is third person singular, hence, not personal and private, not 
conscious. 
The results and the process itself are publicly avalable (as code) and 
communicable. 

Only living creatures-- even a gnat--can think without symbols (not coded), 
since thinking is a conscious experience, hence first person singular (not 
coded). 
Since it is personal, it can to some extent be communicated, 
but there is always a loss converting experience to symbols, 
expressing in words my expeience, what I thought and concluded, 
which need not be in symbols. 


  
Dr. Roger B Clough NIST (ret.) [1/1/2000] 
See my Leibniz site at 
http://independent.academia.edu/RogerClough


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Re: The myth of computer consciousnesss and intelligence

2013-12-10 Thread Bruno Marchal


On 10 Dec 2013, at 10:33, Roger Clough wrote:


The myth of computer consciousnesss and intelligence

People have been trying to create perpetual motion machines
for centuries, but nobody has succeeded, I believe because
of energy losses. The problem with making computers
truly intelligent I believe is also impossible, because
the final stage of perception must be subjective (free of symbols),
not objective (described in symbols). In particular,

Computers can only deal with descriptive knowledge (symbols),
which is third person singular, hence, not personal and private,  
not conscious.
The results and the process itself are publicly avalable (as  
code) and communicable.


Only living creatures-- even a gnat--can think without symbols (not  
coded),
since thinking is a conscious experience, hence first person  
singular (not coded).

Since it is personal, it can to some extent be communicated,
but there is always a loss converting experience to symbols,
expressing in words my expeience, what I thought and concluded,
which need not be in symbols.



The conscious experience of a machine is not related only to the  
symbolic manipulation that the machine does, but in the relation  
between the truth about the machine, and that manipulations, and this,  
even for machine, can be shown, in computer science and mathematical  
logic, not amenable to only symbols.


So your argument does not go through, and btw, would apply also to a  
third person description of a brain or bod, like other told you already.


You are right that consciousness is not purely symbolic, but wrong in  
thinking this makes machines non conscious, as machine are confronted  
with non symbolic things too, like truth (arithmetical or not).


Bruno








Dr. Roger B Clough NIST (ret.) [1/1/2000]
See my Leibniz site at
http://independent.academia.edu/RogerClough





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