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From: draperjv@ornl.gov
Subject: Re: Self awareness experiment
Message-ID: <draperjv.74.2D9B08F7@ornl.gov>
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Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 17:31:36 GMT
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I haven't been following this thread religiously, so maybe someone has 
already made this point. Forgive me for wasting your time if that is so.

The self awareness test logic seems to be something like this:
     1) Truly intelligent machines must demonstrate characteristics of 
intelligent biological systems.
     2) Self awareness is a characteristic of the most intelligent biological 
systems.
Therefore, (3) if a machine can be shown to be self-aware, it is truly 
intelligent.

There seem to  be 2 hidden assumptions in this logic:
    1) Intelligence is unitary, so machine intelligence is not qualitatively 
different from biological intelligence.
     2) Truly intelligent biological systems are self aware.

I can't really address the first, except to say that biological locomotion and 
machine locomotion tend to be very different, so why not intelligence?

As a psychologist, I know that the second assumption is requires some thought. 
Humans are capable of self awareness, but temporary loss of self awareness can 
be an enjoyable and valued experience. Much of our current culture is based on 
seeking temporary suspension of self awareness. The experience of losing self 
awareness is sometimes called a flow experience (robotics researchers may be 
more familiar with the terms presence and telepresence, which are generally 
synonymous with flow experience). Flow, presence, and telepresence do not seem 
to be accompanied by a reduction in intelligence. So, are self awareness and 
intelligence correlated?

I draw no conclusions, merely state some observations. Food for thought.


