[extropy-chat] Qualia Bet.

[John K Clark]

"Alejandro Dubrovsky" <alito at organicrobot.com>

>it [consciousness] could just be a side-effect of the brain's construction.

I agree, it's a side-effect, it's is the only explanation of consciousness
that is compatible with the fact that Random (effects without a cause)
Mutation and Natural Selection produced us. That's why I think the Turing
Test can detect consciousness not just intelligence.

And even if I'm wrong about that I don't worry about it much because nobody
will ever be able to prove me wrong.

> But we don't just rely on the Turing test.  We also rely on
> knowing/believing that the construction of the surrounding
> entities resembles our own.

Then why don't you believe I'm conscious when I'm in a deep sleep, or even
60 seconds after my heart stopped beating forever? The construction of my
brain would still be quite similar to yours. The reason is that if you
administered the Turing Test on me at that moment I would receive the same
score a rock would get.

And in fact in my case you don't even know if I have a biological brain, all
you know about me is that in response to a string of ASCII characters I
produced a different string of ASCII characters, but nevertheless I have a
hunch deep in your gut you think I'm conscious.

  John K Clark