[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI.

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Tue Dec 29 18:04:53 UTC 2009


2009/12/29 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>

> I've read that essay and I think Nagel was totally confused and his
> confusion has nothing to do with the mysteries of consciousness, it has to
> do with logic. He makes it clear that he doesn't want to know what it would
> be like for Thomas Nagel to be a bat, he wants to know what's it is like for
> a bat to be a bat. The only way to do that is to turn the man into a bat,
> but then Thomas Nagel still wouldn't know because he'd no longer be Thomas
> Nagel, he'd be a bat. Only a bat would know what it's like to be a bat
> because like it or not consciousness is a private experience.
>

Impeccably said.

How would you know what's like to be somebody else?

You wouldn't, because it is impossible for somebody to be somebody else.

Organic, electronic, ethereal... Identity is social construct. Everybody
feels veself whomever ve may be, if he feels anything at all, and if he is
Mr. Jones or Mr. Brown or his Zombie Replacement by Alien Abductors or a
califlower is for others to say.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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