Please forgive any misnomers that may be obvious to more tech savy individuals. I am not by any means an information technology expert, but I hope that my description will capture the thought I am trying to convey...
As I type this post, does my computer percieve the data in the way that I percieve my thoughts as they appear in consciousness? If I am the only user that has ever controlled this specific device, then the computer would only be exposed to the kinds of things that I use it for. The things I type would be consistent with what it has experienced, and so it would be similar to the way I percieve the thoughts that appear in my consciousness as consistent with the experiences I attribute them to. Think about the origin of your thoughts before they enter consciousness. To me, the thoughts are consistent with my experiences, and so I operate under the assumption that I am the author. However, I do not know what will occur to me in the next few moments anymore than my computer can know what I will type once those thoughts present themselves.
My computer is a material machine. Unplugged, it is just an intricate composition of metal and circuitry comparable to my body once the energy stops flowing through the systems that keep me alive. While my computer is turned on, and hardwired into the seemlingly limitless sea of information provided through the internet, it becomes something much more than wires and circuits. The internet is the computer's version of reality. The things it explores are its experiences. Its experiences are limited to my commands. The more I explore, the more accurate my computer gets at producing data relevant to my inquisitions. It begins to reflect my agendas and interests, and this quality alone makes it distinct from the computers that are utilized by other users. If I imagine a computer having a "personality", it would be in this way. And if I imagine the computer having a "consciousness", I can imagine the information and commands that prompted the data which created the personality, could be percieved in much the same way that I tend to take credit for the thoughts that occur to me.
My brain processes the information recieved by my sensory experience, and attempts to make sense of it. The finished product is revealed to me through consciousness. My computer does the same thing with the information I put in to it. It is able to pickup on useful information, and from there, it produces what it (dare I say, thinks...) will be relevant to my inquiry. There are computer programs that manipulate the data in such ways as to even appear to be human-like. Siri, on my iPhone, appears to possess every descriptive ability that I have, and if She/He responds in a way that is similar to what I recognize as thought, then how can I know that it is not thought in a different form? Everything in my body can be understood by physical processes just as every action in a computer can. How can we dismiss that what exists within the material computer that produces the information is not, in some form, a conscious experience that is in some ways comparable to our own?
I think this is an interesting question, and it could become more meaningful as computers and robots are advancing rapidly in complexity and computing ability. Eventually, will "Artificial Intelligence" be considered a slur?
Your thoughts?
As I type this post, does my computer percieve the data in the way that I percieve my thoughts as they appear in consciousness? If I am the only user that has ever controlled this specific device, then the computer would only be exposed to the kinds of things that I use it for. The things I type would be consistent with what it has experienced, and so it would be similar to the way I percieve the thoughts that appear in my consciousness as consistent with the experiences I attribute them to. Think about the origin of your thoughts before they enter consciousness. To me, the thoughts are consistent with my experiences, and so I operate under the assumption that I am the author. However, I do not know what will occur to me in the next few moments anymore than my computer can know what I will type once those thoughts present themselves.
My computer is a material machine. Unplugged, it is just an intricate composition of metal and circuitry comparable to my body once the energy stops flowing through the systems that keep me alive. While my computer is turned on, and hardwired into the seemlingly limitless sea of information provided through the internet, it becomes something much more than wires and circuits. The internet is the computer's version of reality. The things it explores are its experiences. Its experiences are limited to my commands. The more I explore, the more accurate my computer gets at producing data relevant to my inquisitions. It begins to reflect my agendas and interests, and this quality alone makes it distinct from the computers that are utilized by other users. If I imagine a computer having a "personality", it would be in this way. And if I imagine the computer having a "consciousness", I can imagine the information and commands that prompted the data which created the personality, could be percieved in much the same way that I tend to take credit for the thoughts that occur to me.
My brain processes the information recieved by my sensory experience, and attempts to make sense of it. The finished product is revealed to me through consciousness. My computer does the same thing with the information I put in to it. It is able to pickup on useful information, and from there, it produces what it (dare I say, thinks...) will be relevant to my inquiry. There are computer programs that manipulate the data in such ways as to even appear to be human-like. Siri, on my iPhone, appears to possess every descriptive ability that I have, and if She/He responds in a way that is similar to what I recognize as thought, then how can I know that it is not thought in a different form? Everything in my body can be understood by physical processes just as every action in a computer can. How can we dismiss that what exists within the material computer that produces the information is not, in some form, a conscious experience that is in some ways comparable to our own?
I think this is an interesting question, and it could become more meaningful as computers and robots are advancing rapidly in complexity and computing ability. Eventually, will "Artificial Intelligence" be considered a slur?
Your thoughts?
