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From: shankar@netcom.com (Shankar Ramakrishnan)
Subject: Re: Does AI make philosophy obsolete?
Message-ID: <shankarDFuM82.B1n@netcom.com>
Reply-To: shankar@vlibs.com
Organization: VLSI Libraries Incorporated
References: <JMC.95Oct2143958@Steam.stanford.edu> <44pq3f$6bo@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> <JMC.95Oct2164919@Steam.stanford.edu>
Date: Tue, 3 Oct 1995 01:16:49 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:33809 comp.ai.philosophy:33283 sci.cognitive:9821 sci.psychology.theory:901

In article <JMC.95Oct2164919@Steam.stanford.edu> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU writes:
>In article <44pq3f$6bo@news-s01.ny.us.ibm.net> jfrenst@ibm.net writes:
> 
> In <JMC.95Oct2143958@Steam.stanford.edu>, jmc@Steam.stanford.edu (John McCarthy) writes:
> >Not only are humans conscious, but to do their jobs robots will also
> >need consciousness.  This is in a technical sense that I believe will
> >eventually supercede philosophical notions of consciousness.
> >
> >See my article
> >
> >Making Robots Conscious ...
> >
> >on my home page.
> >-- 
> >John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
> >*
> >He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.
> >http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/
> >
> Dear John:
>    One definition of consciousness is: "self-awareness, or reactivity to self".
> Why would you want a robot to be aware of itself? 
> Never kick a sleeping dog.
>     With all best wishes, 
>        John H. Frenster, M.D.       jfrenst@ibm.net 
>
>The article goes into detail, but the basic reason is that robots that
>can examine their own mental states will more readily understand how
>to improve their reasoning, e.g. by not wasting time in lines of
>thought that lead nowhere.

Is this akin to some kind of automatic profiling and priority allocation
based on past performance along the same lines of thought?

I think that, in order to call a robot truly conscious, it should
experience sensory states (qualia). One can take cues from the human brain
as to how it implements sight and sound, and how it differentiates
between red and blue. The fact that neurobiology hasn't advanced to that
stage (yet) is another matter.

Shankar
