Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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From: vlsi_lib@netcom.com (Gerard Malecki)
Subject: Strong AI and consciousness
Message-ID: <vlsi_libCzHB5I.Fn7@netcom.com>
Organization: VLSI Libraries Incorporated
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 19:51:17 GMT
Lines: 23

Should computation be temporal in order to achieve consciousness,
going by the definition of strong AI? In other words, should
states in the program trace have an isomorphic mapping to real
time, so that causality in the states implies a physical causality
in the agent performing the computation? What if the states are
played backwards? Or what if the computation is spatial, as in the
case of the whole execution trace recorded in a book? Or even
something more abstract, like social security numbers?
 
I personally do not believe that there could be a conscious stream
existing in social security numbers. Unfortunately, strong AI does
not seem to address this problem. For strong AI is self-contained in
its mathematical abstractions that do not depend on physical reality.
It is even possible to devise spatial or social security  versions
of the Turing Test.
 
I believe it is physics and reality that provides the beef to
consciousness. A program trace could only be as conscious as the
blueprint of a passenger aircraft could be expected to carry
real passengers.

Shankar Ramakrishnan
shankar@vlibs.com
