(November 30, 2014 at 6:05 pm)Heywood Wrote:(November 30, 2014 at 5:35 pm)Jenny A Wrote: However, we have not, so far created a sentient being through intellect. Thus we still haven't seen any reality created unequivocally by an intellect, or as would be fairer in the case of the simulation by many many intellects developing technology and understanding through many generations.
The first video reminds me more of Plato's cave thought experiment. That is to say the spider isn't in an sub reality, it is merely fooled by misinterpretations of it's senses. Judging from the way in which it appears to give up, it may even have gotten wise to its misinterpretation, though I doubt it thought, "oh it a lazar."
In the computer simulation the evolved being chasing the red dot appears nearly as sentient as the real life spider chasing the red dot. Both beings can apparently perceive and navigate toward the red dot. Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive, or experience subjectively.
Are the spider and computer bug as sentient as humans? Certainly not....but they are sentient at least on a rudimentary level.
In the case of the spider perhaps. But before we apply it to the simulated creatures I think we'd better define sentient, don't you?
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
