On 17/02/2008, Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Stathis: Sure, you can't interact with the raindrop computation, but that > doesn't mean it isn't conscious > > Perhaps this conversation helps define something of consciousness - i.e. to > be conscious, you have to be able to form and HOLD a > representation/impression of the world around you, which could be just the > simplest direct sense impression, as in simple one-celled organisms - and > might not involve any REFLECTION (the power to recall images/sensory > impressions later). But you have to be able to hold representations - KEEP > LOOKING at something - IF you are seek goals, and get to that food. The > bacteria have to keep zeroed in on that food they're "flagellating" towards. > > Now that's what inanimate objects can't do - including raindrops. They may > have continuously fleeting impressions of the world around, but those > impressions do keep fleeting. Inanimate objects can't hold on to them. > (Perhaps - though I can't give any reasonable explanation for this - they > evolved in part in order to retain impressions).
It's true that living things and intelligent things have to interact with their environment, but why can't this be a closed system implementing a virtual environment? A computer running an inputless simulation does not interact at the level of the simulation with the outside world. -- Stathis Papaioannou ------------------------------------------- singularity Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/11983/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/11983/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&id_secret=96140713-a54b2b Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
