[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Tue, 2/23/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> You probably don't even need all the sensors and effectors since a 
> person can still think if they are paralysed and deprived of sensory 
> input.

Okay let's stipulate that and forget all that extra paraphernalia that you want to add to my simple thought experiment. 

You have a simulated heart, a simulated stomach and a simulated brain running on three separate computers. You agree the simulated heart doesn't really pump real blood and that the simulated stomach doesn't really digest real food, but you want me to believe the simulated brain really processes real thoughts, i.e., you want me to believe strong AI=true.

Again I ask, how do you explain your inconsistency?

Why do you classify "thoughts" in a different category than you do "blood" 
and "food", if not because you have adopted a dualistic world-view in which
mental phenomena fall into a different category than do ordinary material 
entities?

-gts