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Bob Sciamanda wrote:automata -
Seriously, I believe that consciousness is a unique phenomenon,
presenting a unique modeling problem for science. I have no problem
believing that everything else that I observe in natural phenomena
(including the behavior of animals and humans) is in principle
describable, modelable and even explainable as the behavior of
canreducible to molecular interactions. The one exception is my own
directly experienced consciousness. I cannot even describe this
phenomenon in terms of anything else; I have no means of conclusively
measuring or proving its existence in another entity; and I can imagine
no way in which any theoretical or experimental manipulation of atoms
thesearrive at the observation: "Eureka! There we have producedEvery time I teach a course called "Mind and Machine" I wrestle with
consciousness!" Perhaps the very description of itself demarcates the
limitations of the human mind.
issues. The text for this course is a little book by John Searle, Idemonstrations
believe, "Mind and Machine." Searle's thesis is that what we call
consciousness comprises more functionality than can be achieved, in
principle, by a digital automaton or any other digital program. He sees
consciousness as the result of the chemical and whatever other physical
activities may be taking place in the brain; no soul. Searle, like
Laplace, has no need for God or the soul.
Goedel, Turing, and Church somewhat independently arrived at
of undecidablilty. Goedel produced a statement which is formallybe
undecidable but true. How did he come up with such a statememt? Turing
showed that there are computer programs which will never halt but cannot
formally, i.e. by a prescribable finite sequence of rules, diagnosed asbe
such. How? He produced one. These men produced notions which, by
demonstration, no machine could.
If consciousness is just chemistry and maybe quantum mechanics, it can
prescribed by a finite set of rules. Can't it?
Charlie