[ExI] Semiotics and Computability

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Mon, 2/15/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

>> I think you want me to believe that my watch has a
>> small amount of consciousness by virtue of it having a small
>> amount of intelligence. But I don't think that makes even a
>> small amount of sense. It seems to me that my watch has no
>> consciousness whatsoever, and that to say otherwise is to
>> conflate science with science-fiction.
> 
> If you don't have a problem with a continuous increase in
> intelligence and consciousness between a nematode and a human, then why
> do you have a problem with a continuous increase in intelligence and
> consciousness between a watch and an AI of the future?

I know a priori that the human nervous system supports consciousness. I cannot say anything like that about my watch or about computers without stepping outside the bounds of science to science-fiction.

>> You beg the question of non-organic consciousness. As
>> far as we know, "non-organic alien visitors" amounts to a
>> completely meaningless concept.
> 
> What??

You ask what I would say to non-organic alien visitors, and I suppose you assume those non-organic alien visitors have consciousness. But non-organic consciousness is what is at issue here. 

>> As for nematodes, I have no idea whether their
>> primitive nervous systems support what I mean by
>> consciousness. I doubt it but I don't know. I classify them
>> in the gray area between unconscious amoebas and conscious
>> humans.
> 
> At some point, either gradually or abruptly, consciousness
> will happen in the transition from nematode to human or watch to AI.

I consider it a scientific fact that consciousness arises between the nematode to the human. But only in science-fiction does consciousness happen in digital watches or digital computers.

-gts