--- Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > To try and reduce all this to numbers is - if unintentionally - also very > offensive, far far more so than any remark of mine, and does indeed involve > v. false, limited ideas of emotions (and limited in terms of AGI).
Apology accepted. I did not find your comments offensive. But perhaps you find the idea of reducing the human mind to computation offensive? This is what AGI is about. I don't find it offensive as much as I find it disturbing - that instincts such as the beliefs in consciousness and free will and fear of death are just that - traits that have been programmed into our brains through evolution. The computational model of thought logically denies that consciousness exists, but your own brain does not allow you to believe it. When you ponder whether a simulation of an AGI being tortured is the same as torture, you are experiencing a conflict between your instincts and logic that cannot be resolved because your brain is programmed in such a way that it is impossible. Logically, a simulation of torture is just a computation, and it makes no difference if the computation is implemented in pencil and paper, transistors, or neurons. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=75584599-c885b5
