Brent Meeker writes:
> > I did put in parentheses "this of course assumes a robot can have experiences".
> > We can't know that this is so, but it seems a reasonable assumption to me. If we
> > had evolution with digital processors rather than biological processors do you think
> > it would have been possible for animals with similar behaviours to those with which
> > we are familiar to have developed? If so, do you think these animals would not
> > really have "experiences" despite behaving as if they did? Since evolution can only
> > work on behaviour, if zombie animals were possible why did we not evolve to be
> > zombie animals?
> >
> > Stathis Papaioannou
>
> Of course evolution is not some perfectly efficient optimizer. Julian Jaynes idea
> the consciousness arises from internalizing speech perception would make
> consciousness a round-about way of recalling complex practical instructions - one
> that from a final design standpoint could have been done without the consciousness
> but from an evolutionary standpoint might have been almost inevitable. I don't know
> that I buy Jaynes explanation - but it shows that there might well be consciousness
> even if zombie animals would have done just as well.
That's strictly true. It's also possible that consciousness is a byproduct of biological brains
but not digital computers performing the same functions, to the point of passing the Turing
Test. We'll never know.
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Sat Oct 07 2006 - 23:50:57 PDT