[ExI] More thoughts on sentient computers

[William Flynn Wallace]

Yes, and one side has language and the other doesn't.  I would like to see
data on left-handed people with split brains.  Some data indicate that
their language is on both sides.  bill w

On Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 10:17 AM Gadersd via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> The split-brain phenomenon is illustrative of this point. Due to epilepsy
> some people have had their brain split in half to prevent each hemisphere
> from communicating with the other. However, each hemisphere is able to
> function independently from the other which implies that each hemisphere
> produces a separate consciousness in these people. "In a particularly
> dramatic recorded demonstration, the famous patient “Joe” was able to draw
> a cowboy hat with his left hand in response to the word ‘Texas' presented
> in his left visual half field. His commentary (produced by the verbal left
> hemisphere) showed a complete absence of insight into why his left hand had
> drawn this cowboy hat. Another astonishing example involved the same
> patient. MacKay and MacKay (1982
> <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7305066/#CR66>) flashed a
> digit in the left visual field and trained the patient to play a version of
> ‘20 questions’ across hemispheres. The left hemisphere guessed the answer
> vocally, and the right hemisphere provided responses by pointing ‘up’
> (meaning ‘guess a higher number’) or ‘down’ with the left hand. In this way
> the patient managed to vocalize the right answer. This suggests two
> independent conscious agents communicating with each other (one steering
> the left hand, the other agent controlling vocal expressions).”
>
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7305066/
>
>
> On Feb 24, 2023, at 6:18 AM, Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2023, 2:31 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> Thanks, Ben - another question:  why do we, or they, or somebody, think
>> that an AI has to be conscious to solve the problems we have?  Our
>> unconscious mind solves most of our problems now, doesn't it?  I think it
>> does.  bill w
>>
>>>
>
> Why do we assume our "unconscious mind" is unconscious, rather than
> another mind whose consciousness we don't have access to?
>
> Jason
>
>
>>>
>>>
>>> .
>> On Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 12:24 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> bill w asked:
>>>
>>>  >Three silly questions: how would you know if you had created a
>>> conscious mind? Why do you want to do that? What makes that necessary?
>>> bill w
>>>
>>>
>>> I like silly questions! (some of them anyway)
>>>
>>> 1) How would you know?
>>> Probably you would never know for sure, just as you don't know for sure
>>> that I'm a conscious mind. But I'd say we'd use the same criteria as we
>>> do with each other, or for the existence/non-existence of gods, so while
>>> we never absolutely know for sure, we can make a damned good guess,
>>> based on the evidence at our disposal.
>>>
>>> 2) Why do it?
>>> Because we're transhumanists, and want the sum total of self-awareness
>>> and intelligence in the universe to increase. Because we recognise the
>>> severe limitations of biological life, and if we can create artificial
>>> minds, we can overcome these limitations. Because we know that humans
>>> have a limited lifespan, both as individuals and as a species, and this
>>> is a way of going way beyond that.
>>>
>>> 3) What makes it necessary?
>>> Well, that depends on your priorities. People who think that humanity is
>>> a stain on the world and things would be better without it, probably
>>> think it's not only not necessary, but undesirable. I think it's
>>> necessary because we are tragically weak, fragile and confused, and
>>> anything we can do to correct or side-step that is a good thing.
>>> Artificial minds are our chance to pass down our most significant
>>> quality to the future, in a form that has a chance of surviving and
>>> thriving in the long-term (very long-term, as in billions of years and
>>> more).
>>>
>>> Oh, and it may be the only realistic way to achieve mind uploading. We
>>> probably aren't capable of figuring it out, or at least of actually
>>> doing it, by ourselves.
>>>
>>> And it may be the only way we're going to get out of the many pickles
>>> we're getting ourselves into, too. Maybe we need a non-human perspective
>>> to solve the various seemingly unsolvable problems we've got. I don't
>>> need to make a list, I'm sure you can think of plenty.
>>>
>>> Ben
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