From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!canterbury.ac.nz!cosc.canterbury.ac.nz!chisnall Fri Jan 31 10:26:49 EST 1992
Article 3247 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Intelligence Testing
Message-ID: <1992Jan29.173231.3648@csc.canterbury.ac.nz>
>From: chisnall@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz (The Technicolour Throw-up)
Date: 29 Jan 92 17:32:30 +1300
Reply-To: chisnall@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz
References: <11976@optima.cs.arizona.edu>
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>From article <11976@optima.cs.arizona.edu>, by gudeman@cs.arizona.edu (David Gudeman):
> ]4. Since you believe (1), you are led to wonder if perhaps the machine
> ]   is conscious.
> 
> Yes, it is a possibility to consider, but it is far from established
> (5 and 6 don't add anything to the argument, so I'll omit them).  But
> now add the propositions
> 
> 7. The machine answers questions by purely syntactic manipulations.

Human beings answer questions by neurochemical manipulation although not
necessarily "purely" so since we may also use pumped phonon condensates and
quantum gravity.

> 8. Consciousness doesn't seem to have any relationship to syntactic
> manipulations.

Consciousness doesn't seem to have any relationship to neurochemicals,
phonons, or quantum gravity.

> And your possibility 4, which was never more than a 50-50 proposition
> anyway, becomes seriously doubtful.

I don't think anybody is really in a position to say whether (4) is doubtful
or not.  It may be, it may not be, we are simply too far away from having any
good understanding of the issues involved to be able to assign measures of
doubt.
--
Just my two rubber ningis worth.
Name: Michael Chisnall          email: chisnall@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz


