>
> On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > For the same reason, I disagree with the contention that
> > quite a few people are unconscious during most of their
> > waking day. I don't think that consciousness is so easy
> > to pin down, and almost wish that I could join J. R.
> > Molloy and believe it to be as useless to discuss as
> > phlogiston.
>
> Well, we've got the "acid" stupidity test! :-)
> I've defined what precisely IMO are the elements of
> consciousness in another post. I do agree that
> you will get a continuum as you develop the elements
> I mention and extend them to various higher levels.
>
> I also agree that the discussion at this point is losing
> much of its appeal.
>
> Robert
>
>
It always goes this way. The archives contain a lot of copies of this
discussion, going back millenia (well, in internet time, anyway).
My parting points on this (unlikely, actually) are the following...
- We can't even define consciousness usefully, so it's quite certain we wont
be able to talk about it usefully in any depth.
- We probably don't need to consider the nature of consciousness as is
usually meant, in the world of zombies & the inneffable. The Dennett camp
may not be correct, but we can proceed as if they were.
- I'm still going to take some convincing before I destructively upload.
- Robert's earlier definition of consciousness seems to define awareness,
more correctly, but I'd say its a useful working definition; the kind of
thing that will move us forward on constructing self-aware intelligence.
Conscious puddings, on the other hand, wont help much at all.
- When someone gets a serious AI going, we may be able to start talking
about this more usefully.
- I seriously hope that you don't discover that your pudding is conscious
Robert. After all, by Eli's dogma, you can't eat it then. Or maybe you can?
That could be very much part of it's natural thought process...
Emlyn James O'Regan - Managing Director
Wizards of AU
http://www.WizardsOfAU.com
emlyn@WizardsOfAU.com
"Australian IT Wizards - US Technology Leaders
Pure International Teleworking in the Global Economy"
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