Re: Belief Statements

From: Jesse Mazer <lasermazer.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:35:53 -0500

Stathis Papaioannou wrote:

>For example, if I am running an AI program on my computer and a particular
>bitstring is associated with the simulated being noting, "I think,
>therefore I am", then should not the same bitstring arising by chance in
>the course of, say, a spreadsheet calculation give rise to the same moment
>of consciousness - regardless of whether the spreadsheet user or anyone
>other than the simulated being himself is or can be aware of this?

Only if you believe it's the bitstring itself which is mapped to a
particular conscious experience, rather than the causal pattern enacted by
the AI program's computation that led it to produce that bitstring. So if
you believe in "psychophysical laws" (to use a term I have seen some
philosophers use), it depends on how these laws map facts about the physical
world to facts about first-person experience.

Jesse
Received on Thu Jan 27 2005 - 20:37:27 PST