Re: >H Spiritual computers

[Jsn@concentric.net]

Transhuman Mailing List

> The Turing test is more important as a philosophical claim than as a test.
> It asserts that intelligence is defined operationally, not in reference
> to a soul or the innate properties of the matter involved.
 
Hooey.

I don't define a symphonic recording to be a real symphony playing,
simply because I can't tell the difference when I close my eyes.

I don't define a television screen to be a real event, just because
the resolution is so high that I can't distinguish it from reality,
except for the fact that it's in a television screen.

Why are we to define intelligence (or worse, self-awareness) simply on
the basis of whether or not we can tell the difference?  This isn't a
philosophical claim, it's a blatant admission that we haven't the
foggiest notion what constitutes intelligence (or self-awareness) so
we'll fall back on the comforts of illusion.

This particular emperor has no clues.

Think it's semantics, or unimportant?  I don't.

I don't want to be tricked into giving human rights to a glorified 
version of Eliza-- I believe the award of rights to an object which
does not deserve them is foolish, wasteful, and ultimately trivializes
my rights.  Conversely, I don't want to deny rights to hypothetical
intelligent and aware machine because we're shackled to the illusion
of the Turing Test.

-- 
John S. Novak, III           jsn@cris.com
The Humblest Man on the Net

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