[ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

[Christopher Luebcke]

I think the difficulty that you're having here is that you're talking about a thought like it's a thing--even an intangible thing.

In the way you're using the word, you'd be better off saying "concept". The state of being in possession of a concept is not the same as the state of thinking, or being conscious.

I stand by my earlier contention that this conversation is doomed to 9 more levels of circular hell unless the main participants can agree on a definition of "conscious", "thinking".

Gordon: Try reframing your position by thinking about artificial hearts, rather than simulated hearts. Really. Please. You're missing something important. Artificial hearts pump real blood. Some day artificial stomaches will digest real food, I'm sure. These are activities that the devices can engage in, not physical properties of the things themselves.



________________________________
From: Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
To: gordon.swobe at yahoo.com; ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tue, February 23, 2010 4:07:21 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] Is the brain a digital computer?

On 24 February 2010 01:21, Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Tue, 2/23/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You probably don't even need all the sensors and effectors since a
>> person can still think if they are paralysed and deprived of sensory
>> input.
>
> Okay let's stipulate that and forget all that extra paraphernalia that you want to add to my simple thought experiment.
>
> You have a simulated heart, a simulated stomach and a simulated brain running on three separate computers. You agree the simulated heart doesn't really pump real blood and that the simulated stomach doesn't really digest real food, but you want me to believe the simulated brain really processes real thoughts, i.e., you want me to believe strong AI=true.
>
> Again I ask, how do you explain your inconsistency?
>
> Why do you classify "thoughts" in a different category than you do "blood"
> and "food", if not because you have adopted a dualistic world-view in which
> mental phenomena fall into a different category than do ordinary material
> entities?

Thoughts seem different in that for other bodily functions you would
need to make a robotic AI, while for the thoughts perhaps just the
computer would suffice. However, another way to look at it is that
thoughts do involve behaviour but the behaviour is information
processing rather than pumping blood.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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