[extropy-chat] The human OS [was: when will computers improve?]

[Brett Paatsch]

Robert J. Bradbury wrote:

> Jef Allbright wrote:
> 
> > There is no Master Control Program in the mind.

Necessarily if there is no mind. Perhaps not in the brain either. 

> You have a hard time convincing me of that if there is a 
> program that can (and in a not insignificant fraction of the
> population does) terminate all of the other programs from
> time to time.

Suicide does seem to suggest that (at least at the extremes) there
is some sort of over-ride capability in some people. 

This capability does seem to suggest mastery and control (however
momentary), but to me it weakens rather than strengthens the case
that humans are running an OS. 

Running programs do terminate and can cause other programs to 
terminate, but they *don't* yet, so far as I know, *intend* or
*aim* at doing so. 

Seems like some specialties are showing we aren't we (self, mind,
consciousness are not what they used to be - or perhaps rather
what they were thought to be) whilst others are determined to add
a new class of entities to the we group. 

I wonder what sort of dis-illusioned entity, if not a self, will still be
around to pronounce that a machine has passed the Turin test ? 

Regards,
Brett