tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5560192578015125149.post7271199565025955449..comments2018-10-30T04:49:40.410-07:00Comments on Signal Selection: consciousness, a modelUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5560192578015125149.post-591092541323318882011-07-08T13:11:13.866-07:002011-07-08T13:11:13.866-07:00Yes, I think those are the correct questions and t...Yes, I think those are the correct questions and the answer is then obviously that they both are conscious insofar as consciousness is one aspect of what a human brain does and so if a book replicates a brain's linguistic ability then that book would be a seed of consciousness as well and produce consciousness when followed. <br /><br />Although, that does raise the question of, what if you can have an unconscious but linguistically active brain? For some reason, I don't think that could be possible. It would be the opposite of what we find in intelligent animals that appear conscious but are unable to speak to any great extent.Aratina Cagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05191120796865740975noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5560192578015125149.post-13852086822435186652011-07-07T18:57:53.628-07:002011-07-07T18:57:53.628-07:00Right. What is the difference between the Chinese...Right. What is the difference between the Chinese room and a human brain? If there is none, then are both conscious? Or are both unconscious? If I assume that I am conscious, should I not then assume that the Chinese room is too? Along a gradient from simple to complex machines, what physical features will we determine to be the causes of consciousness? I've been reading a lot of negative stuff lately (that depends on how you look at it though, negative by most accounts, not ours however). Books by Albert Camus saying there's no meaning nor hope, and articles denying the existence of morality, equating minds with machines, and finding no reason to suppose there is any free will (however there may be “free won't”). <br /><br />One feature of consciousness is “agency.” With the global environmental catastrophe we are witnessing in progress, I can see that artificial consciousness could overcome the biological limitations that are preventing humans from effectively <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/policy/wess/index.shtml" rel="nofollow">addressing this emergency</a> and assist us in creating a sustainable future at a new balance point beyond the paleolithic balance that we had several thousand years ago. Artificial consciousness could be an invaluable green technology. Stross explored many other possible applications in his article.Eric Schaetzlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17658689292611460708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5560192578015125149.post-38441628975899297822011-07-04T22:55:19.629-07:002011-07-04T22:55:19.629-07:00Hey there. I hope you will forgive me for not comm...Hey there. I hope you will forgive me for not commenting here in some time. :(<br /><br />About the Chinese Room thought experiment, I did finally identify what I consider to be the primary flaw with that argument of Searle's. Like you say, the person exchanging symbols could be a mindless robot, however, Searle has simply pushed back the real conscious agent into the lookup book that the mindless robot (or the really really bored human) consults to figure out what symbols to show to the observers on the outside of the Chinese room. This is a significant error on Searle's part. He presupposes that a book is capable of doing what a fully matured Chinese human mind does, a preposterous claim!<br /><br />However, let's consider consciousness a biological process that ultimately can be simplified and reduced into short steps over time. Let's also try to scale down the massive parallelism. Then, perhaps one could follow the steps (hopefully one cycle of consciousness could be completed in reasonable time--probably not, though). If the steps in the process can be followed, they can be put in a book, and the Chinese room's lookup book would be capable of producing consciousness.<br /><br />I almost think that if we could slow down the process of consciousness, we would see that the brain is a veritable Chinese room. This is exactly the opposite of what Searle wanted to point out with his thought experiment, however.Aratina Cagehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05191120796865740975noreply@blogger.com