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Article 4063 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: ske@pkmab.se (Kristoffer Eriksson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Strong AI and panpsychism
Message-ID: <6610@pkmab.se>
Date: 25 Feb 92 15:27:57 GMT
References: <1992Feb20.170044.24181@oracorp.com> <1992Feb24.164839.1584@aifh.ed.ac.uk> <6252@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Peridot Konsult i Mellansverige AB, Oerebro, Sweden
Lines: 32

In article <6252@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>>Surely this relationship of A and B is sufficient only for _simulation_.
>>Implementation requires (at least) an _identity_ of inputs and outputs
>>of the two systems, rather than a mere mapping between them.
>
>If so, you can turn the simulation into an implementation by making
>the mappings part of it.

Indeed. If we add some device that performs the necessary mappings, then
we can finally demonstrate that rocks really ARE conscious. Any volunteers
with suitable mapping devices available?

I think that in the real world, one should always specify the inputs and
outputs you require of a device, that is, not only specify that there
should be, say, five arbitrary input states and three output states that
can be numbered 1 - 5 and A - C, but also specify how these states are to
be represented in the inputs and outputs of the actually desired device. A
pocket calculator that does not display the results with human-readable
digits is of no use, no matter how well it calculates internally.

In this way, conscious rocks pose no problem, since it is not a complete
implementation of a consciousnes unless the mapping devices that convert
the inputs and outputs into something useful for interacting with the
surrounding world are also included. And of course, making such a device
may be somewhat difficult. (Of course, I now assume a conception of
cosciousnesses that requires some kind of ability to interact with the
environment in a non-random way.)

-- 
Kristoffer Eriksson, Peridot Konsult AB, Hagagatan 6, S-703 40 Oerebro, Sweden
Phone: +46 19-13 03 60  !  e-mail: ske@pkmab.se
Fax:   +46 19-11 51 03  !  or ...!{uunet,mcsun}!mail.swip.net!kullmar!pkmab!ske


