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Article 3164 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Intelligence Testing
Message-ID: <1992Jan26.220013.7722@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 26 Jan 92 22:00:13 GMT
References: <11920@optima.cs.arizona.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 25

In article <11920@optima.cs.arizona.edu> gudeman@cs.arizona.edu (David Gudeman) writes:
>really that profound?  As I have written at least twenty times in the
>last couple of months: the belief that humans are conscious is not
>based on behavior but on introspection.  Unless you have achieved a

 Wrong.  You belief that you are conscious is based on introspection.  Your
belief that others are conscious is based on the fact that they behave
in ways which you believe would require consciousness for you if you were
to act the same way in the same circumstances.

 The problem, however, is that yours is a completely unscientific approach.
Using introspection means observing yourself.  This means you are subject
to total bias.  Scientific investigation must avoid bias.

 You have two choices.  You can come up with a method of determining
consciousness which is free of bias, or you can declare consciousness as
an area where science is not applicable.  The Turing Test is an attempt at
the first approach.  The second approach, which you seem to prefer, is
often referred to as religion.

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


