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Article 3918 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Strong AI and panpsychism
Message-ID: <1992Feb21.200358.5789@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 21 Feb 92 20:03:58 GMT
References: <1992Feb21.162210.29101@oracorp.com>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 35

In article <1992Feb21.162210.29101@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com writes:
>Kristoffer Eriksson writes:
>
>> If Putnam is right, then perhaps any arbitrary lump instantiates the
>> computer and terminal that I am writing this message on. But, somehow,
>> I think there is something important missing in rocks and other
>> arbitrary lumps of matter, that is responsible for the fact that

>I think your point is correct, however some people are uncomfortable
>with it. The main reason that a real computer allows you to write
>letters, etc. and a functionally equivalent FSA found in some natural
>object (a rock, or a tornado) does not is a matter of interface.

 I would put it differently.  In spite of the elegance of functional
approaches, a computer program is only important because of its
side effects.  If I gave you a program which computed the first
trillion digits of pi in one microsecond, but which had no side effects,
running that program would be worthless for there would be no record on
paper, disk or screen of the results.

>It seems that the overwhelming majority (perhaps everyone except me)
>in this newsgroup feel that being conscious or not is objective,
>independent of interface considerations.

 You don't have to feel completely alone.  In my view the I/O is critical to
the function of the mind, although this is apparently lost on those who,
like Searle (and like all too many AI proponents), appear to view any
possible attempted implementation of strong AI as consisting of mere
symbol manipulation.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


