It is such a popular position to take here for some reason. But I can't see any similarity between a computer and a person. When I was a kid brought to Disneyland for the first time I remember all the wonder expressed about the 'automatronics" which made the robotic birds mimic real ones in movement and sound. To my mind, that is all that any computer does is mimic.
Of course, a computer can make a decision using a logic tree implanted by a programmer or one that evolves along prescribed parameters by the same. The idea of the character Data from Star Trek is fun but bogus. It is much easier to act out scenarios in science fiction than it is to imagine what it would mean for a computer to think.
But the idea of Data wrestling with the concept of self and assimilating more and more human traits is just good fiction. It isn't quite up there with the idea of a creator god. But it is fairly silly stuff.
Of course, a computer can make a decision using a logic tree implanted by a programmer or one that evolves along prescribed parameters by the same. The idea of the character Data from Star Trek is fun but bogus. It is much easier to act out scenarios in science fiction than it is to imagine what it would mean for a computer to think.
But the idea of Data wrestling with the concept of self and assimilating more and more human traits is just good fiction. It isn't quite up there with the idea of a creator god. But it is fairly silly stuff.
