[ExI] The digital nature of brains (was: digital simulations)

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Sat, 1/23/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

>> Digital simulations of non-digital objects never equal
>> the things they simulate, except that some people here like
>> to imagine so.
> 
> It is true that a digital simulation is not the same as the
> original, but the question is whether it performs the same function
> as the original. A simulated apple could taste, feel, smell like a
> real apple to a person with a lot of extra equipment which I'm sure
> computer game developers are working on

Game developers create many kinds of illusions. Here we concern ourselves with reality.

> A simulated brain will not be identical to a real brain but
> you seem to agree that it could display the same behaviour as a real
> brain if we added appropriate sensory organs and effectors. 
> However, you make the claim that although every other function of the 
> brain could be reproduced by the simulated brain the consciousness can
> never be reproduced. 

Never by a s/h system, but such a system could perform all the visible functions of a conscious brain. We can in principle create weak AI, defined as software running on hardware that exhibits all the behaviors of a natural brain. By behavior I mean physical behavior of the apparatus to which it is attached including its outputs. We can, in other words, create unconscious robots with weak AI that pass the turing test.


> But if that were so, it would allow for the possibility
> that you are a zombie and don't realise it, which you agree
> is absurd.
> Therefore, you MUST agree that it is impossible to
> reproduce all the functions of the brain without also reproducing
> consciousness. 

But I don't. 

> It is still open to you to claim that a computer could never
> reproduce human intelligence (and therefore never reproduce human
> consciousness);

We can create the outward appearance of human intelligence.

-gts