From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!mips!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!xenitec!wynnds.xenitec.on.ca!skynet!ice Thu Feb 20 15:21:38 EST 1992
Article 3820 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!mips!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!xenitec!wynnds.xenitec.on.ca!skynet!ice
>From: ice@skynet.uucp (Ice)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Virtual Person?
Message-ID: <1992Feb17.010331.3090@skynet.uucp>
Date: 17 Feb 92 01:03:31 GMT
References: <1992Jan30.001623.12556@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <6188@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992Feb14.000817.11818@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Cyberdyne Systems Corporation
Lines: 32

In article <1992Feb14.000817.11818@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>So these neurons
>certainly "work" in the sense of causing the right firing patterns
>and behaviour.  The question of whether they "work" in the sense
>of "causing a mind" is of course precisely what's at issue.
>

By "work" I presume you mean a functionalist viewpoint, where a biological
neuron is subjected to a stimulus and give a certain output and a VLSI
circuit does the same thing, so presumably it could take the place of this
biological one.

How can you be sure that you have captured enough of the functional properties
of the system you are modelling before the model is a suitable replacement
for the original. This would depend on the level of analysis right? What
is the appropriate level of analysis?

"causing a mind" is (necessarily?) ambiguous, and it is difficult to
make sense of this.


>-- 
>Dave Chalmers                            (dave@cogsci.indiana.edu)      
>Center for Research on Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University.
>"It is not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable."


-- 
/* Ice's Hypermedia Sig */ #include <cyberpunk.h> #include <industrial.h> 
Compile & link these libraries in your neural net and sample Ice's world. 
Audio: Burning Inside by Ministry; "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste" 
Visual: Sarah Conner's flesh on fire blasted away revealing screaming skeleton 


