Richard, After reading your paper and contemplating the implications, I believe you have done a good job at describing the intuitive notion of "consciousness" that many lay-people use the word to refer to. I don't think your explanation is fleshed out enough for those lay-people, but its certainly sufficient for most the people on this list. I would recommend that anyone who hasn't read the paper, and has an interest in this whole consciousness business, give it a read.
I especially liked the bit where you describe how the model of self can't be defined in terms of anything else.. as it is inherently recursive. I wonder whether the dynamic updating of the model of self may well be exactly the subjective experience of "consciousness" that people describe. If so, the notion of a p-zombie is not impossible, as you suggest in your conclusions, but simply an AGI without a self-model. Finally, the introduction says: "Given the strength of feeling on these matters - for example, the widespread belief that AGIs would be dangerous because, as conscious beings, they would inevitably rebel against their lack of freedom - it is incumbent upon the AGI community to resolve these questions as soon as possible." I was really looking forward to seeing you address this widespread belief, but unfortunately you declined. Seems a bit of a tease. Trent ------------------------------------------- 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
