[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

Thu Dec 22 19:12:23 UTC 2016

On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 6:52 PM, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 
> consciousness might reside in the actual brain substance.
>

I'll believe that when you show me that when
 vacuum tube computers add two numbers they get a different result than
when solid state computers add the same two numbers.

> 
> Where else could it be?
>

Information of course.

> > 
> It may be possible for a computer to feel things the way we do, but we
> will never know.
>

True, but computers are not unique in that. It may be possible for you to
feel things the way I do, but I will never know for sure.

> I would like to reiterate an earlier post and remind everyone that neurons
> are not the only things in our heads:  we have several kinds of glia
>

Irrelevant, if gilia or hormones or anything else processes information
than a digital computer can too, just as it can for neurons. 

> 
> Before John says it: you don't know whether any other humans really feel,
> you just deduce it from their behaviour.
>

But you couldn't deduce anything unless you've already taken it as a axiom
that intelligent behavior implies consciousness. All I'm asking is you play
by the same rules when dealing with computers.

> > 
> I am a physical monist and don't like metaphysics. [...]   I am an
> empiricist to the bone!

Good. There is not one bit of experimental evidence that the carbon atoms
in your body are different from the carbon atoms in my body or in a lump of
coal or the atoms in a computer, therefore the only difference between you
me a computer and a lump of coal must be information on how those atoms are
arranged. The only alternative to that conclusion is a religious type soul,
but you said you don't like metaphysics. Information is as close as you can
get to a soul and still remain within the scientific method.   

 John K Clark
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