[ExI] [Exl] Digital Consciousness

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 11:25 AM, Gordon <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Stathis,
>
>> You don't know and yet you do know, with certainty, that computers can't
>> be conscious.
>
> Yes. I don't know how the brain becomes conscious (nobody does) but I've
> ruled out the possibility that a digital computer can do it. If and when we
> ever create a brain, that object will a lot more like a brain than a
> computer.
>
>> The brain contains atoms, the atoms follow the same laws of physics as
>> atoms do everywhere else in the universe, and it is just that the
>> atoms in the brain are in a particular arrangement that results in
>> consciousness.
>
> Sure, I agree with that. We'll need to arrange a pile of atoms into a
> configuration that is exactly or at least approximately identical to the way
> nature has configured them.

But this is an unreasonable claim. Even if it turns out to be true it
is an unreasonable claim, because you make it with the certainty of an
a priori proof. The form of your argument is like claiming that only
winged things can fly, not because you have done an analysis of the
physics of flying but because it is self-evident and to suggest
otherwise is absurd.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou