From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Sat Jun 09 2001 - 15:20:53 MDT
Anders Sandberg wrote:
> onsdagen den 25 april 2001 05:46 Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > It is now easy and instructive to visualize such "playback" on
> > a Life Board. Rather than the next generation being actively
> > computed, we may simply have an automatic arm reach into a
> > sequenced table of gels, each with bright spots in fluorescent
> > paint, and place the next gel in sequence on the Life Board.
> > This gives every bit the appearance of a civilization developing,
> > or of an entity having an experience, but in reality has no
> > content. Indeed, the lights are on, but no one is home.
>
> Isn't this just the same thing as Hal's point that the address update in the
> table lookup would constitute the evolution of a conscious mind? In this case
> the automatic arm would have to be guided by something, and this something
> needs to retain a representation of the complex state.
Yes. Take humongous lookup tables, some versatile pattern matching and
association programs, and a self teaching chatterbot, and you've got something
with some sort of sentience. Adding more pattern matching, associating, and
learning programs gives it more sentience. Keep in mind that a cockroach has
sentience dictated by less than a handful of pattern matching programs... our
level of sentience requires a bit more than that...
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