From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usenet.coe.montana.edu!ogicse!milton!forbis Tue Jan 28 12:16:17 EST 1992
Article 3042 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: forbis@milton.u.washington.edu (Gary Forbis)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Intelligence Testing
Message-ID: <1992Jan23.024133.18261@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 23 Jan 92 02:41:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: milton.1992Jan23.024133.18261
References: <1992Jan20.152751.6143@oracorp.com> <1992Jan22.192721.16777@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 23

In article <1992Jan22.192721.16777@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>The point is that when I'm e.g. considering
>my response to a given statement, there's a lot of conscious awareness
>going along with it, and it seems extremely implausible that a single
>state-transition should be accompanied by this degree of awareness.

Sometimes I think my consciousness arises from a flow past some portion of
my verbal processing equipment.  I wonder at my ability to generate a mental
voice which seems as if a sequential production.  Could there be some shift
register which holds serially aquired signals for patern recognition?  Words
do not reach my ears in such a way that some single state transition can
account for the conversations I hold.  None the less I sense sounds and
interpret them as words and sentences.  Are you saying you believe
consciousness to be related to the efficiency of the algorithm which converts
input to output and the width of the i/o channels?

>I have no doubt that consciousness, understanding, etc, arise from
>certain kinds of complex processing.  A single state-transition,
>however, seems far too trivial.

>Dave Chalmers                            (dave@cogsci.indiana.edu)      

--gary forbis@u.washington.edu


