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Article 3501 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Strong AI and panpsychism
Message-ID: <1992Feb5.102252.8501@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 92 15:22:49 GMT
References: <1992Jan31.233453.7625@news.media.mit.edu> <1992Feb3.113723.2519@arizona.edu> <1992Feb5.005813.6383@nuscc.nus.sg>
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In article <1992Feb5.005813.6383@nuscc.nus.sg> 
smoliar@iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar) writes:

>In article <1992Feb3.113723.2519@arizona.edu> 
>bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:

BS:
>>  Consider an arbitrary rock, and an arbitrary finite state
>>automaton.  There exists a mapping from vibrational states
>>of the rock to states of the FSA which preserves the state
>>transition function of the FSA.  (The mapping is probably
>>time-dependent, but so what?)  Under this mapping, the rock
>>is performing the same computation as the FSA.
>>
>>  Therefore, if an FSA can be conscious, and consciousness is
>>merely a matter of performing the right sort of computation,
>>then a rock can be conscious.
>>
>>  What's wrong with this reasoning?

SS:
>I would like to try to answer this a bit more simply than David did.  Let us
>start by choosing an arbitrary rock;  call it R.  Then there is some set of
>finite state automata which model the vibrational states of R.  Call that
>set A(R).  The "arbitrary" finite state automaton you choose has to be a
>member of this set.

If I understand Bill correctly, his claim is that A(R) has to include all
finite state automata.  Incidentally, the mapping in question can certainly
preserve the time scale: in particular, see the appendix to Putnam's
"Representation and Reality".

DISCLAIMER: the above reference is intended solely for the benefit of 
the readers who are either already familiar with the text in question, 
or possessed of the wherewithal to look it up on their own.

SS:
>Now consider some arbitrary entity which we are willing to agree is conscious.
>Let us call that entity John_Searle (just so we have symbols for everything).
>Then we may assume, for the sake of argument, that there is some set of finite
>state automata which model the behavior of John_Searle;  and we can call that
>set A(John_Searle).  The problem is that there is no reason to assume that the
					  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>sets A(R) and A(John_Searle) have a non-empty intersection, which means that
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>you cannot assume that anything about the behavior of ANY of the members of
>A(R) will have anything to do with consciousness.

On the contrary, see above.

>-- 
>Stephen W. Smoliar; Institute of Systems Science
>National University of Singapore; Heng Mui Keng Terrace
>Kent Ridge, SINGAPORE 0511
>Internet:  smoliar@iss.nus.sg


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