Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > 2009/8/22 Brent Meeker <meeke...@dslextreme.com>: > >> That's an interesting question and one that I think relates to the >> importance of context. A scan of your brain would capture all the >> information in the Shannon/Boltzman sense, i.e. it would determine which >> of the possible configurations and processes were realized. However, >> those concerned about the "hard problem", will point out that this >> misses the fact that the information represents or "means" something. >> To know the meaning of the information would require knowledge of the >> world in which the brain acts and perceives, including a lot of >> evolutionary history. Image scanning the brain of an alien found in a >> crash at Roswell. Without knowledge of how he acts and the evolutionary >> history of his species it would be essentially impossible to guess the >> meaning of the patterns in his brain. My point is that it is not just >> computation that is consciousness or cognition, but computation with >> meaning, which means within a certain context of action. > > You wouldn't be able to guess what the alien is thinking by scanning > his brain, but you could then run a simulation, exposing it to various > environmental stimuli, and it should behave the same way as the > original brain (if weak AI is true) and have the same experiences as > the original brain (if strong AI is true). > >
True. But the point was directed at the MGA. Part of the simulation must be outside the brain - and possibly are very great deal. So while it seems intuitively clear that the brain can be emulated, it's not so clear that the brain + enough environment can be. Brent --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
