[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

[John Clark]

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 10:20 AM, Brent Allsop <brent.allsop at gmail.com>
wrote:


> ​> ​
>  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.
>

I don't know about "we" but I represent the red qualia with the
​ASCII sequence​
 "red qualia" in the same way I represent the Pythagoras theorem
​ with the ASCII sequence ​"
Pythagoras theorem
​". And they both involve memory and arbitrary convention.

​> ​
> Obviously, an abstracted word like “red” does not have a redness quality
> we can experience.
>
>
​When discussing qualia like "redness" the personal pronoun "we" should
never be used unless the working assumption is made that if something,
human or otherwise, behaves as if it is experiencing redness then it really
is.

​> ​
> All the information represented in abstracted computers is made up of the
> type of abstracted knowledge that is the word red.
>
>
​How can knowledge of qualia or of anything else be encoded into a brain,
human or otherwise, if that knowledge is not abstracted?​


​  John K Clark​
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