From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!pindor Wed Apr 22 12:04:16 EDT 1992
Article 5167 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!pindor
>From: pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Intelligence, awareness, and esthetics
Message-ID: <1992Apr21.140730.18351@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCS Public Access
References: <1992Apr20.191345.27706@javelin.sim.es.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1992 14:07:30 GMT

In article <1992Apr20.191345.27706@javelin.sim.es.com> biesel@javelin.sim.es.com (Heiner Biesel) writes:
>........
>The arguments pro and con the Turing test are moot for me, as I know that
>it would take an exposure to a truly moving piece of art produced by a 
>computer - a symphony equal to one of Borodin's, for example - before I could
>fully accept the awareness of a machine. Such acceptance would come as
>an overwhelmingly pleasant shock of recognition, not as the grudging
>acceptance of the concensus judgement of a panel of computer scientists.
>I have enjoyed earning my keep among their ranks for some years, and I
>know our strengths and limits too well. My heart requires rather more
>evidence than my head, but it responds much more strongly. I suspect that
>the same is true of many others as well.
>
By your standards, 99% of humans (or more, me including :-() would not be 
accepted by you as fully self-aware beings! Have you thought out the impli-
cations of your criterion? Can you yourself create a piece of music equal to
one of Borodin's symphonies (to stick with your example)? If not, then am I
justified in dismissing you incapable of 'human intelligence and awareness'?
It seems to me you are giving your heart too much control over your head ;-).
-- 
Andrzej Pindor
University of Toronto
Computing Services
pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca


