[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

[Brent Allsop]

Hi Giulio,



It’s good to hear from you on this topic.  It is true, that we are
“computers”, but there is a qualitative difference between the way we do
computations (and more specifically, the way we represent knowledge) and
abstracted computers do it.  Obviously, an abstracted word like “red” does
not have a redness quality we can experience.  All the information
represented in abstracted computers is made up of the type of abstracted
knowledge that is the word red.  So, there is a slight qualitative
accommodation required before computers can know, what it is like to have
knowledge represented by something that has a redness quality, like we do.



Brent



On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 11:59 PM, Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:

> I guess the keyword here is "digital." I am most certainly a computer
> (a system that computes its behavior according to physical laws), and
> I most certainly feel. Ergo, computers feel. It remains to be seen if
> our current concept of "digital" computer can accommodate feelings.
> Perhaps yes, and perhaps conceptual extensions are needed.
>
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 7:49 AM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 16, 2017 at 3:30 PM, Colin Hales <col.hales at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >> >
> >> We have to deal with subjectivity.
> >
> >
> > We? What's with this "we" business?
> >
> > I have no idea about you, all I know is that I deal with subjectivity
> > because subjectivity is the most important thing in the universe; or at
> > least it is in my opinion.
> >
> >> >
> >> The time for this endless bullshit to stop is now.
> >
> >
> > I would humbly submit that your plea that the list should immediately
> stop
> > discussing this subject might have a tad more credibility if you wrote
> the
> > above sentence at the very beginning of your response and stopped right
> > there, instead you stuck it in at the very end of a long post on this
> exact
> > same "bullshit" subject.
> >
> >  John K Clark
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
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