Re: Dualism

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2 total messages Started by Daryl McCullough Thu, 12 Nov 1992 00:00

#681

Author: Daryl McCullough
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 00:00

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In article <7882@skye.ed.ac.uk>,
jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:

>>I will agree that *given* an abstraction function, and *given* a
>>decomposition of a system into parts, then it may be possible to say,
>>objectively, whether the system with that decomposition and that
>>abstraction function has a certain functional organization.  However,
>>the choice of abstraction function and decomposition are not
>>objective, and can be done in more than one way.
>
>The choice can be done in more than one way, but so what?

So the most you can say is "X has functional organization Y, if you
use abstraction function A". You cannot say "X has functional
organization Y", without giving the abstraction function.

My original complaint was with the idea of distinguishing "programs
with consciousness" from "programs without consciousness" by their
functional organization---programs with certain functional
organizations are conscious, and programs with different functional
organizations are not. This idea doesn't get us anywhere unless we
know which abstraction function A to use.

Daryl McCullough
ORA Corp.
Ithaca, NY

Re: Dualism

#686

Author: Frank Adams
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:51

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In article <1992Nov12.000022.21195@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCullough) writes:
>My original complaint was with the idea of distinguishing "programs
>with consciousness" from "programs without consciousness" by their
>functional organization---programs with certain functional
>organizations are conscious, and programs with different functional
>organizations are not. This idea doesn't get us anywhere unless we
>know which abstraction function A to use.

By the time you are talking about it as a "program", you have already
abstracted to the functional organization.  (You still have to look at the
program to see what that functional organization is.  And we don't yet know
just what properties the functional organization needs to have in order to
be conscious.)

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