X-Message-Number: 11875 Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 14:49:42 +0100 From: (John de Rivaz) Subject: Re: consciousness In Cryonet article: <> writes: > It is very easy to prove that a computer, however "intelligent" it may be, is > not necessarily conscious. The first proof is just the reminder that > "intelligent" but unconscious computers already exist--e.g. the chess program > Deep Blue that has Grand Master capability yet is merely a brute-force > program with a few flourishes. "Expert system" programs exist that may > diagnose medical symptoms better than most physicians, yet again are no more > conscious than a dictionary. Conversation programs exist that can fool some > of the people some of the time. Surely anyone can see that, projecting into > the future, programs and computers have unlimited potential for producing > impressive results, including goal-seeking and adaptive behavior, even > without the slightest hint of consciousness. What about "idiot savants" - people are who virtually vegetables yet can, for example, work out the day of the week for any given date in a ridiculously short time or perform other mathematical, artistic or musical feats? Are these not a bit like Deep Blue being considered as a failure as a conscious entity? Writing in "Strange Brains and Genius" Dr Clifford Pickover points out that brains need to be on the point of instability to produce really novel ideas, giving mini-biographies of several famous scientists. Without the work of people who from a social point of view were eccentric at best, modern civilisation would lack many of the things we take for granted. (He also mentions that most religous innovators, such as St Paul, were suffering from temporal lobe epilspsy.) http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0306457849/longevitybooksA/ -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz Homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR Longevity Report: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Sauna/3748/lr.htm Fractal Report: http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm PCS - a Singles listing sheet for people in Cornwall http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR/pcs.htm Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11875