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Article 7374 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: lcarr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (lincoln carr)
Subject: Re: Simulated Brain
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In article <1992Oct21.181823.16435@klaava.Helsinki.FI> amnell@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Marko Amnell) writes:

>
>It seems we're simply using the word `conscious' to mean two different
>things.  I was looking for an inclusive term to designate the overall
>mental and experiental state of a healthy human being, whereas you
>seem to take it to mean `sentience' or even mere self-awareness.  A
>discussion of semantics is pointless in this group.  My efforts have
>been directed at stressing the importance of a variety of factors in
>the broad _Lebenswelt_ in which a person is formed and in which he or
>she acts.
>

I agree that the focus of many philosophical discussions is merely
resolving differences in definition.  The reason that I am concerned
with discussing the minima of consciousness or rationality is that it
would seem that such minima would lead to tests of AI systems.  In
order to answer the question, "Is my workstation conscious?"  one
would attempt to see if it met minima for consciousness, not if it
displayed a broad range of human capabilities, unless the broad range
of human capabilities were in themselves the minima.



-- 
Lincoln R. Carr, Computer Scientist-Philosopher    lcarr@silver.ucs.indiana.edu
"Treat all rational autonomous moral agents, whether in the form of yourself
or another, never as means solely, but always as ends in themselves."
                  Immanuel Kant, from "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals"


