[ExI] Digital Consciousness

[Ben Zaiboc]

Gordon, I have a question for you.

Do you agree or deny that a digital computer could, in principle, run a simulation that imitated, in every way, a human mind, including referring to itself, reporting that it has internal states like emotions, and displaying all the intelligence of a human mind?  

Never mind issues like "would it really be conscious", I'm just talking about behaviour, both responses to outside stimuli and self-generated behaviour.  Don't worry either about how it would be done.  It could be a giant lookup table, or some fiendishly clever C++ programming, or a multi-level simulator, with virtual machines within virtual machines.  Doesn't matter in the slightest.  Just focus on its behaviour.

What's your opinion? Such a system is possible, or not?


Ben Zaiboc