[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

Stathis Papaioannou stathisp at gmail.com
Wed Dec 21 18:59:33 UTC 2016


On Thu., 22 Dec. 2016 at 2:20 am, William Flynn Wallace <foozler83 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi William,
>
> You are the original asker in this thread of subject "Do digital computers
> feel?" right?
>
> No, not me.  I have scanned the conversations between you and John and
> have to say that I don't understand any of it.
>
> The idea that code can emulate human experience is just ludicrous to me.
> Four quadrillion neural firings a second in our brains.  I don't think any
> supercomputer will be able to deal with that for some time.  Suppose you
> isolate a neuron:  some have up to tens of thousands of connections with
> other neurons, which maybe exciting it, suppressing it, or not changing.
> And I believe that I read where a neuron can change its state from
> excitatory to inhibitory or the other way around.  Just mind boggling
> complicated to try to understand one second of the neuron's behavior.
>
> It's like some people seem to believe that neurons are like electrical
> wires and circuits, able to be laid out in a diagram.  Extremely more
> complicated than that.
>
> bill w
>
> That neurons are complicated is no argument against their computability. A
> valid such argument would involve a claim that neurons utilise
> non-computable physics.
>
>
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