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From: mwd@cray.com (Mark Dalton)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
Message-ID: <1995Jan17.161446.11851@walter.cray.com>
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Date: 17 Jan 95 16:14:46 CST
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Marvin Minsky (minsky@media.mit.edu) wrote:
:>I'm not sure I understand your argument.  The question isn't about disembodied
:>minds it's about mindless brains.  Is there something about brains that make
:>minds logically necessary?  If so, is it the structure or the physics?  Upon
:>what evidence does one base one's opinion?

: Well, I think Greg is sort of right on this.  Consider what Greg said,
: about the zombie behaving as he does.  Now observe that Greg is talking
: about consciousness just the way that you and I conscious folks do.
: Why on earth, then, would a mindless brain talk about consciousness as
: though it did in fact experience all those feelings, reflections, and
: reflections about reflections, if there were nothing going on inside?
: It would be a inconceivably improbable coincidence!

: Yes, as I concluded somewhere in "The Society of Mind," there is
: indeed something about brains that make minds logically necessary.  It
: is because "Minds are simply what Brains do."  It's neither the
: structure nor the physics; it's the information-processing procedures.

: I suppose you could ask, what's the proof of this.  It's just a

I am not sure I can agree with 'something about brains that make minds
logically necessary.'   I guess it depends on the definition of mind and
of brain that you use.  I would think there is necessarily at a minimum
a very grey area.

	Also you will need to recognize minds and brains across organisms
are VERY different.  I could not say that if one has a brain, he then
can has consciousness/self-awareness/or understanding.

This is also more of a hunch, than proof.

Mark
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Mark Dalton       CH3-S-CH2 H                      H      O       H
Cray Research,Inc.      |   |                      |       \      |
Los Alamos,NM 87544     CH2-C-COO    //\ ---C--CH2-C-COO    C-CH2-C-COO
mwd@cray.com                |       |  ||   ||     |       //     |
                            NH3      \\/ \ / CH    NH3    O       NH3
                                          NH
URL = http://lenti.med.umn.edu/~mwd/mwd.html

