From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Thu Jun 24 1999 - 10:03:07 MDT
> I am getting really concerned by what passes for "logic" in these recent
> discussions. Most of the arguments here lately seem to boil down to random
> theories with no supporting evidence. When someone objects, the defense is
> "you can't prove I'm not right." This is not logical, not scientific, and
> not Extropian.
There is also a place for boundless speculation, and I don't think
this list is inapropriate for that. Certainly it's true that the
tendency of humans to apply less scientific rigor to things we want
to be true infects Extropians too, and where that manifests itself
it should be pointed out. But not to the exclusion of the idle
dreamers that give us something to think about.
It's also unclear sometimes which side of an issue Occam's razor
falls on. Take, for example, the question of whether a computer of
human-equivalent intelligence would be conscious. On one side there
is the camp that says we've never seen anything like consciousness
from a machine or any other artifact, so we have no reason to
assume that it's possible. I fall on the other side, but also for
what I believe is Occam's razor: in hundreds of years of study,
we've never found anything special or unique about the human mind,
so why assume that there is anything special about consciousness?
Of course my dog is conscious, and why wouldn't an equivalently
complex computer be?
I am wary of the fact that I would indeed /like/ the latter to be
true (many religious thinkers, I suspect, would prefer that there
be something unique and precious about humanity--a desire that no
doubt motivates creationists and other crackpots). This makes me
suspicious of my motives for believing it is true, but I honestly
believe that I have applied reason correctly in this case, just as
some of those on the other side honestly believe they have as well.
More data will make things clearer, but until then, I am loathe to
condemn even the wildest speculations on the issue.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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