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Article 6097 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Hypothesis: I am a Transducer (Formerly "Virtual Grounding")
Message-ID: <1992Jun5.130022.26367@cs.ucf.edu>
Date: 5 Jun 92 13:00:22 GMT
References: <1992Jun5.045522.19139@news.media.mit.edu>
Sender: news@cs.ucf.edu (News system)
Organization: University of Central Florida
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In article <1992Jun5.045522.19139@news.media.mit.edu> nlc@media.mit.edu (Nick  
Cassimatis) writes:
> DID ANYONE EVER WONDER WHY YOU RARELY SEE DISCUSSIONS ON
> THE RELEVENCE OF QM TO MOTOR CONTROL OR LANGUAGE OR ANY OTHER ASPECT
> OF COGNITION?  Why focus only on consciousness?  This phenomena
> convinces me even more that that QM is just a wild card that makes
> people glassy eyed enough to accept mysticism.
> 
> Much talk about Quantum Mechanics a sign of intellectual decadence.
> 
As the "originator" of the current QM threads I must comment.

Much talk about QM and the mind _is hokum_, but by totally rejecting the
possible relevance of quantum effects to mind, the baby may be going out 
with the bathwater. Quantum mechanics is ill-understood and mysterious
and inasmuch as QM is a "theory of everything", the universe is ill-
understood and mysterious.  

I think my original point is still valid:  Harnad's thesis that grounding
in the physical world is important to mind may find a physical explanation
in QM phenomena.  Harnad's  argument therefore cannot be refuted by
arguments based on simulation of classical physics.

The central problem of AI - Searle's anyway - is that a machine behaving
intelligently may not be conscious - have qualia etc. etc.  Even Searle
would agree that it is possible to build a zombie - use a humongous LUT 
if all else fails.  

Achieving consciousness may require something else, that something else
might well be quantum.  Thus it might be the case that you can build
a zombie using deterministic computational devices, but that to achieve
consciousness you'll have to wire in a few Josephson junctions.  
{Consciousness might arise through grounding via correlations with the
rest of the quantum world.  The quantum correlations are of course
not directly observable, but then neither is consciousness}

DID ANYONE EVER WONDER WHY ALL THE DISCUSSIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL 
PROBLEMS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS ALWAYS SOMEHOW INVOLVE A 
CONSCIOUS OBSERVER?
--
Thomas Clarke
Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central FL
12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32826
(407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, clarke@acme.ucf.edu


