In a message dated 3/23/2001 11:21:11 PM Eastern Standard Time,
lcorbin@ricochet.net writes:
<< Now, yes, the SI is
conscious, probably very much more so than we are, and not
only has our feelings, but emotions of a nature that entirely
surpass ours. But the key point is that the SI is no more truly
involved... than you are when you scratch your dog's ears while
talking on the phone!
But then comes the transformation that you describe: the SI
spawns the Professor Moriarty process, and now there is a
separate, human-level sentience, with separate consciousness,
feelings, etc. As to whether the actual Moriarty consciousness >>
Hmmm, so the point is whether the observer (zombie) takes an emotional
interest in what task he has been 'programmed' to respond to, which implies
the freudian term, ego. An analogy might be in a horror movie where the
zombie chases after the victim because 'brain stops pain' rather then the
non-zombie who wants to kick the victim's ass to the curb, out of pure
vengence or spite. It's almost better to change the question, then, to
whether I am a zombie or an emotional zombie? Either way, I have to pay
taxes. Or more significantly, does qualia matter?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:42 MDT