From: ShawnJ99@AOL.COM
Date: Wed Apr 02 1997 - 17:18:51 MST
In a message dated 97-03-29 21:13:40 EST, you write:
<< > > > You cannot simply program emotions if the hardware cannot experience
> > > them. My body including my brain can experience emotions. Computers,
as
> > > of yet, cannot experience emotions, and this is not so much a software
> > > problem as it is a hardware problem.
>
> Anders Sandberg responded:
> > What do you base this assertion on?
>
> Can you merely program a computer to see without creating optical
> hardware? No! You can program pattern recognizing neural nets day in and
> day out, but until you give the computer hardware [optics] to see with,
> it cannot see ... no matter how hard you try to program it to do so.
> ...
> Emotions are felt in a physical manner. I *feel* sexual pleasure via my
> organs. I *feel* hunger via my organs. I *feel* excitement via my
> organs. Without this specialized hardware I would *feel* nothing. As a
> computer I might be "aware" of conditions, but I would not *feel* those
> conditions unless someone created specialized hardware that would allow
> me to *feel*.
>Like the man said, what evidence do you have of this? The fact that
>you experience physical sensations at the same time as your cognitive
>state of emotion provides no evidence of which is cause and which is
>effect, nor does it prove that there is anything necessary about those
>physical sensations to achieve the cognitive state. >>
I don't claim to be a neural expert, but I believe both the above parties are
missing out on something. All physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts
actually occur in the brain itself, regardless if it seems that our arm
"hurts", or our stomach "aches". Is it not the brain which feels these
things, and emotions as well? The brain "thinks" the arm "hurts". The arm
does not actually "hurt". The brain does, and it perceived the "hurt" being
located at the arm. Am I making any sense?
Shawn
Johnson
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