--- On Tue, 11/11/08, Richard Loosemore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Your 'belief' explanation is a cop-out because it > does not address any of the issues that need to be addressed > for something to count as a definition or an explanation of > the facts that need to be explained.
As I explained, animals that have no concept of death have nevertheless evolved to fear most of the things that can kill them. Humans have learned to associate these things with death, and invented the concept of consciousness as the large set of features which distinguishes living humans from dead humans. Thus, humans fear the loss or destruction of consciousness, which is equivalent to death. Consciousness, free will, qualia, and good and bad are universal human beliefs. We should not confuse them with truth by asking the wrong questions. Thus, Turing sidestepped the question of "can machines think?" by asking instead "can machines appear to think"? Since we can't (by definition) distinguish doing something from appearing to do something, it makes no sense for us to make this distinction. Likewise, asking if it is ethical to inflict simulated pain on machines is asking the wrong question. Evolution favors the survival of tribes that practice altruism toward other tribe members and teach these ethical values to their children. This does not mean that certain practices are good or bad. If there was such a thing, then there would be no debate about war, abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, or animal rights, because these questions could be answered experimentally. The question is not "how should machines be treated"? The question is "how will we treat machines"? > My proposal is being written up now and will be available > at the end of tomorrow. It does address all of the facts > that need to be explained. I am looking forward to reading it. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=120640061-aded06 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
