X-Message-Number: 7973
Date:  Sat, 29 Mar 97 23:34:36 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Feeling in AI

Bob Ettinger, #7963, writes

>The (present day) computer cum program has NOT been through
>Dr. Perry's tutorial and could have no conception of what the symbols
>represent, even if it could support the concept of representation.
>
>4. Even if an alien intelligence were to go through Perry's tutorial
>and "know" what the symbols represent, still, in the absence of a self
>circuit--in the absence of feeling--that "meaning" would not be on the
>level of life; there would be no subjectivity, no qualia. Without a
>self circuit (or the equivalent, if there is an equivalent, which may
>not be the case), then we have a system which, however capable and
>"intelligent," cannot experience pleasure or pain or anything at all,
>and therefore has no claim on our empathy.
>

My feeling is that when an "alien intelligence"--including an 
AI of our own making--is smart enough to interact so that it appears to 
understand the concept of feeling--ours in particular--and to be 
sympathetic to the same, and to express that it too has feeling in 
what seems like convincing fashion, we'll be inclined to grant that 
it does have feeling. In the end it'll just be the simplest way to 
deal with what we have to confront. The question may always remain 
as to whether the system "really" has feeling or is just a cleverly 
programmed (maybe self-programmed) imitation that has no feeling or 
consciousness either. Probably that question will increasingly be 
rendered moot as our understanding improves.

Of course the idea of an AI with feeling raises interesting 
questions: we could not simply treat it as we would an unfeeling 
program, but would have to consider the issue of civil rights, etc.

Mike Perry

http://www.alcor.org

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