X-Message-Number: 8033
Date: Wed, 9 Apr 1997 20:54:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: John K Clark <>
Subject: Consciousness

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In #8018 On  Tue, 8 Apr 1997  Olaf Henny <> Wrote:


        >When a bobcat chases a rabbit, I assure you, that the rabbit is
                >conscious  
           
You can assure me all you want, you can't KNOW that the rabbit is conscious, 
you just assume he is because he behaves that way. I assume the same thing 
by the way.          



        >The other day I spotted an ant perambulating across my living room
        
        >floor. When my hand moved closer to pick it up, it started to behave
                >much like the rabbit with the bobcat on its tail.


That looks like pretty simple behavior to me, easy to duplicate and not very  
impressive.               


        >Although some robots have been equipped with visual perception, I
        
        >doubt, that any of them will ever cringe, if you wave a sledge
                >hammer in front of them. 


Why do you doubt that? A program to spot the visual pattern of a hammer does 
not seem like an insurmountable obstacle to me, and a cringe response would 
be easy.       



        >if my definition of (self-) consciousness comes anywhere close to
        
        >reality, it is not contained in digital data processing (and I
                >suspect), no matter how  sophisticated and complex.


Then religious people are right, we have a soul Cryonics will not work and is 
not even necessary.
               


        >If truly intelligent computers would ever develop consciousness,
                >*then* we would have the mother of all wars on our hands.


They might not be that hostile, I can't think of anything we have that they  
would want and I don't think they'd get much satisfaction in ruling us, 
after all, do you have a burning desire to be King of the earthworms?


                                            John K Clark     

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