From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!news.service.uci.edu!unogate!stgprao Wed Oct 14 14:59:03 EDT 1992
Article 7250 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: stgprao@st.unocal.COM (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: Re: Simulated Brain
Message-ID: <1992Oct13.152306.17245@unocal.com>
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References: <1992Oct12.130804.18065@sophia.smith.edu> <1992Oct12.191445.18565@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> <1992Oct12.221609.15695@news.media.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 15:23:06 GMT
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>In article <1992Oct12.191445.18565@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> c60c-2gh@web-4f.berkeley.edu (Erik Strickland (Og)) writes:
>>
>>	Of all of the people attending this discussion, I am perhaps the most
>>fortunate, inasmuch as I'm a student at UC Berkeley who has studied under 
>>Searle for a year and a half. 
>
>>	According to Searle, the mind is a secretion of the brain, which "just
>>happens" as a result of electrochemical reactions in the brain. At no point is
>>there any real "information processing" going on in the brain, as "information"
>>is a meaningless concept without an observer, and (excepting a homunculus) there
>>is no observer in the brain. The brain in this way is not a computer or
>>information processing device, but is just a lump of conveniently arranged 
>>molecules, much like a heart or liver. 
>>	The original question was this: If I could in some way simulate all of the
>>electrochemical processes/entities in the brain, such that for all time, the state
>>of my model was in 1-1 correspondence with the modeled brain, would the simulated
>>brain have a simulated mind? 

I can buy Searle's argument that the mind probably doesn't manipulate
information (sensation, memories) in a symbolic fashion as most computers
currently do.  I can't accept the argument there is some magical component
in meat-brains that embodies thought/consciousness/intelligence that
precludes the construction of an artificial intelligence out of computing
technology.  "Specialness" of natural systems has not held up for artificial
life, artificial flight etc.  Sometimes the artificial replacement imitates
natures closely and sometimes it is quite different.  It is not clear which
way artificial intelligence will turn out.


