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Article 3466 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott)
Subject: Re: Multiple Personality Disorder and Strong AI
Message-ID: <1992Feb4.161510.21182@cs.yale.edu>
Summary: Pigs are not simple
Keywords: consciousness,functionalism,animals
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Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158
References: <kokp5aINNiuu@agate.berkeley.edu> <1992Feb4.035646.11687@cs.yale.edu> <1992Feb4.125018.25363@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1992 16:15:10 GMT
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  In article <1992Feb4.125018.25363@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com> petersow@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Wayne Peterson) writes:
  >
  >Drew McDermott asserts:
  >"...simple creatures are not conscious at all. ..."
  >
  >How do you know?  Have they failed to pass your
  >Turing test?

  >What pain we continually reap on the simple creatures
  >and we say they are not conscious.  Does a pig
  >not fear the butchers knife.

Pigs are not simple.  I am quite sure that pigs experience pain and
fear.  To believe otherwise (here I am taking my theoretical framework
for granted) is to believe that the need for a self-model arose in the
last millisecond of evolution, which is unlikely.

(Alas for the pigs, I myself enjoy the experience of pork.)  

                                             -- Drew McDermott



