X-Message-Number: 12597
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 20:07:01 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Re: imputing feeling

Bob Ettinger (#12589) says:
>
> You could say that a compass "wants" to point north, or 
>that hot air "likes" to rise, but clearly that is misleading, and equally so 
>to say that a robot that seeks an electric outlet, to recharge itself, is 
>"hungry." 
>

I would say, not "equally so." A robot is more complex than a compass
needle. The case that it couldn't have feeling at some level seems weaker to
me. In general I see considerable shades of gray in consciousness and
feeling, not just "all or nothing." The grays can include near-blacks that
are not all the way black, and I think very likely do. So even very simple,
adaptive, goal-directed systems might have an epsilon or two of feeling.

Mike Perry

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