Re: Can Pure Lookup Tables Be Conscious?

From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Apr 25 2001 - 09:52:56 MDT


onsdagen den 25 april 2001 05:46 Lee Corbin wrote:

> It is now easy and instructive to visualize such "playback" on
> a Life Board. Rather than the next generation being actively
> computed, we may simply have an automatic arm reach into a
> sequenced table of gels, each with bright spots in fluorescent
> paint, and place the next gel in sequence on the Life Board.
> This gives every bit the appearance of a civilization developing,
> or of an entity having an experience, but in reality has no
> content. Indeed, the lights are on, but no one is home.

Isn't this just the same thing as Hal's point that the address update in the
table lookup would constitute the evolution of a conscious mind? In this case
the automatic arm would have to be guided by something, and this something
needs to retain a representation of the complex state.



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