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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12597