Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife,comp.ai.genetic
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From: thantos@runic.mind.org (Alexander Williams)
Subject: Re: [Q] Robotic 'ants' for Pest control...
Organization: Runic Writings UUCP Site - Lawrenceville, GA
Message-ID: <Cz5pE2.4Ez@runic.mind.org>
References: <39aof0$5ds@todd-06.cs.strath.ac.uk> <39m9dvINN6de@life.ai.mit.edu> <Cz2641.6xE@watdragon.uwaterloo.ca> <Cz2F6G.AFL@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 13:27:36 GMT
Lines: 39
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.alife:1283 comp.ai.genetic:4243

In article <Cz2F6G.AFL@undergrad.math.uwaterloo.ca>,
Mark W. Tilden <mwtilden@math.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:
>You've gotta build robots, otherwise how can you ever *know*.

I suppose that depends on how much  old-style metaphysics you're still
clinging to, does it not?  Under the same assumption, you have to wire
your rolife with the /same/ hearing, smell, sight, /touch/, et al as a
human possesses (as the only kind of  sentient you recognize) and make
sure it has  access to manipulate  the  physical world in exactly  the
same  way.    Otherwise,   you're   going to   develop   some kind  of
alien/differently-evolved sentience, if you do attain sentience, which
you  may not recognize  because it  reacts  to different input than  a
sentience you recognize.

If, on the other hand,  you accept that an alife  (not just rolife  in
specific) can   evolve  to "sentience"  (which  is   a whole different
concept  than old-guard    metaphysical sentience)  while   possessing
different sensory apporati than humanity,  well then, you're perfectly
open to  have that sensorium be   available through completely virtual
means,  becoming  obvious  that simulation  is  a perfectly acceptable
means of creating a "sentient" entity.

Further, you assume that every  alifer's goal in, well, organo-life is
to create  "something  on the other  side  of the screen  to talk to,"
which  is  patently  false.    Personally,  I can   see all   sorts of
applications  for   insect-level  intelligences, both   simulated  and
rolife, though perhaps that's more to do with my standing as a B-movie
enthusiast and not so much as a researcher of alife.

In short, robots are /not/  necessarily superior for *knowing* at all,
unless you're bound to   physicality as the  test  for life, in  which
case, one can argue a pebble's life as it falls.


-- 
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