> Michael - Do you believe that computer programs can be conscious?
> This is not clear from your message.
>
> If you do, then imagine that you find yourself one day to be
> a computer
> program. Ignore the question of whether you are the same
> person as some
> human precursor, just consider the future. If the computer is stopped
> and re-started, are you the same person? If your program is copied to
> another section of memory, are you the same person? If two copies of
> your program are made, are they both you?
>
> I think considering the questions in this way is helpful as it lets us
> get past some of our intuitions and prejudices from our
> evolutionary past
> where one body == one mind. We can think more clearly and
> analytically
> about the problems by considering disembodied consciousness.
> That lets
> us focus on the role of information and its transfer.
>
> Hal
I always find this metaphor unsatisfying. Particularly because, even though
I might believe that we could create conscious intelligence from parts,
those parts might not be in the form of a von-neumann computer. It may be
the case that there are some quite stringent restrictions on the substrate
for intelligence+consciousness, including stopping/restarting, wholesale
copying around in memory (or whatever persistence mechanism was to be used),
etc. There might be restrictions which entirely preclude running
consciousness on a suped-up Pentium.
Emlyn
***************************************************************************
Confidentiality: The contents of this email are confidential and are
intended only for the named recipient. If the reader of this e-mail is not
the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, reproduction,
disclosure or distribution of the information contained in the e-mail is
prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please reply to us
immediately and delete the document.
Viruses: Any loss/damage incurred by using this material is not the sender's
responsibility. Our entire liability will be limited to resupplying the
material. No warranty is made that this material is free from computer virus
or other defect.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:26 MDT