<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;">Eugen Leitl <eugen@leitl.org> wrote:</span><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">>>I am myself a programmer, by the way (C++). I can make computers do interesting things that appear conscious, but I don't suppose I could ever write a program that would make a computer actually >> conscious. That would require magic, like the magic that made Pinocchio come alive. What would the code look like?
How do I write a "become conscious" function?</span><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="y_msg_container"><br>> This is an argument from ignorance: I can't do this, hence nobody else can.<br><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> Here's the code: </span><a href="http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/download/getstd" target="_blank" style="font-size: 12pt;">http://www.neuron.yale.edu/neuron/download/getstd</a><br></div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">How wonderful. Someone wrote some code that simulated a neuron. I've actually already done something like that (I just a few hours ago wrote about it to a fellow extrope in private email).</div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">I don't pretend that my code actually caused my computer
to have conscious experience. My digital computer is just an ordinary mechanical machine, not fundamentally different from my watch. My watch tells me the time, but I think it has no idea what time it is. Do you think it does?</div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">Gordon</div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>