From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert Tue May 12 15:48:36 EDT 1992
Article 5362 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Systems Reply I (repost perhaps)
Keywords: AI Searle Dickhead Barf
Message-ID: <1992May1.185606.31991@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 1 May 92 18:56:06 GMT
References: <6589@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992Apr11.053605.28116@ccu.umanitoba.ca> <6637@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 34

In article <6637@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:

>There are already a number of things computers can do without
>thought that involve thought in humans.

  Perhaps you should tell us what you think constitutes "thought" or what
would be "thought" in a computer.

  I suspect the real problem is that humans can do many things without
thought, which require thought in computers.  To put this in perspective,
I am treating a computer chess program as using thought (or the computer
equivalent), but being limited by not being able to make the snap
judgements of evaluation which humans do intuitively without thought.

>Moreover, the simple fact is that a human can have all kinds of
>different thoughts while producing the same behavior.  It is

 This is hardly a problem.  Computers do lots of multitasking.

>(Suppose a computer had been turned off and when booted claimed
>to have been thinking all the while.  Would you believe it?
>Are you convinced that it's behavior would have to show it
>had been turned off?)

  The same question could be posed to a human who claims to have
spent time in thought.  Behavioral tests cannot prove that thought
was absent, because they cannot distinguish between absence of
thought and the existence of purely worthless thought.  But useful
thought would be detectable by behavioral tests, since the knowledge
base would change.  Yes, this would allow a computer to be switched off,
have a disk replaced by once containing more information while it
was turned off, then when turned on claim it had been thinking all
the time.  Presumably similar effects could occur for humans with
partial brain transplants if such surgery were to ever become possible.


