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From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Subject: Re: Penrose and Searle (was Re: Roger Penrose's fixed ideas)
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Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 21:07:54 GMT
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In article <MATT.94Nov30115111@physics10.berkeley.edu> matt@physics.berkeley.edu writes:

>And since "Penrose" is in the title of this post, let me just point
>out what, in my opinion, is a very serious logical flaw in Penrose's
>arguments.
>
>Penrose uses Searle's argument to say that digital computers can never
>be conscious; so far so good.  Later, though, when discussing human
>consciousness, he says that consciousness evolved because it confers
>specific survival advantages.  But those two arguments are
>contradictory!  If consciousness has any evolutionary benefit then
>that means there is some behavioral difference between a conscious and
>a non-conscious organism.  The whole point of Searle's argument,
>though, is that it's possible to imagine a conscious and a
>non-conscious system that have identical behaviors; if there were any
>behavioral differences then a non-conscious system couldn't pass the
>Turing Test, and Searle's argument would fail.

But, strangely enough, Searle seems to think consciousness has
advantages that would be evident in behavior.  (This is in his
_The Rediscovery of Mind_ -- I can look up an exact reference if
necessary.)

What's not clear is whether these advantages would be detectable
in a teletype TT.

-- jd



