🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <26519@castle.ed.ac.uk> cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:
[...]
>
>One thing which artificial intelligence research has demonstrated
>conclusively is that these kinds of reasoning do not need
>consciousness. The fact that we employ consciousness in such reasoning
>is not relevant. We also employ consciousness to perform long
>division, but, fortunately for calculator manufacturers, consciousness
>is not an essential ingredient of mechanised arithmetic.


      What we refer to as consciousness, or self-awareness, probably has
more to do with purpose i.e. survival and growth, than with any particular
information processing. This is what computer programs, no matter how complex,
cannot have. At bottom, no matter how cleverly self-modifying, a computer
program is just a looping set of instructions. Living systems are not
necessarily analogously structured.

>-- 
>Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
>Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
>5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205



      John E. Snodgrass [snodgras@cyber.net]