[ExI] Digital Consciousness .

[Gordon]

Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:


> More to the point, how can you prove that human beings have intentionality?


Strictly speaking, I cannot prove that you have intentionality, but you can prove it to yourself. Do you see the question mark at the end this sentence, and do you know that you see it? If so, you have it.

So what other things in the world have it? I think probably all mammals do, based mainly on their biological similarities to humans. Perhaps some less complex organisms also have it, but I'm quite sure that no organism lacking a fairly well-developed nervous system has it.

Does my computer have it? No, I seriously doubt that my computer is anything more than a blind, unconscious machine. It might act intelligently but it has no idea of its own existence, or of my existence, or of the existence of the things that I make it calculate about. What if I upgraded it? What if I had the most powerful processor imaginable, an infinite amount of ram, and so on? No, I don't think I could ever make my digital computer actually know what it is doing in the sense that you and I do.

Someday a digital computer might pass the Turing test, and we will have created weak AI. But strong (conscious, intentional) AI is a completely different challenge. We might someday create strong AI in the sense that I mean, but I don't believe it will happen on digital software/hardware platforms. It will involve biology. 

-Gordon
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