030708 – Computer consciousness
030708 – Computer consciousness I begin to understand the temptation to write papers that takes the form of diatribes against another academic’s position. I just found the abstract of the paper...
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030710 Here’s what Daniel Dennett has to say (passage said to be cited in Pinker 1997, How the Mind Works, p. 79) about homunculi: Homunculi are bogeyman only if they duplicate entire the talents they...
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030711 The body is hierarchical in at least one obvious way. In order to make a voluntary movement, a particular muscle is targeted, but the specific muscle cell doesnt matter. What matters is the...
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030714 Heres whats wrong with Dennetts homunculus exception. Its a bit misleading to discuss a flow chart for a massively parallel system. Were accustomed to high bandwidth interfaces between...
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030715 Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch in their Science review article (2002) indicate that “comparative studies of chimpanzees and human infants suggest that only the latter read intentionality into...
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030716 Babies are born with reflexes (IRM-FAP’s). I wonder if the corresponding models mirror the reflexes. It’s certainly a better place to start than a) all connection weights set to zero or b)...
View Article030718 – Self-Reporting
030718 – Self-Reporting Is there any advantage to an organism to be able to report its own internal state to another organism? For that is one of the things that human beings are able to do. Is there...
View Article030721 – Consciousness and (philosophical) zombies
[Added 040426] Is consciousness an expert system that can answer questions about the behavior of the organism? That is, does SHRDLU have all the consciousness there is? Does consciousness arise from...
View Article030723 Limits of consciousness
030723 Limits of consciousness Is important to note that we’re not conscious of absolutely everything that goes on in our bodies. We’re not conscious of the normal functioning of our lymphatic...
View Article030828 – Are human beings rational?
030828 – Are human beings rational? My wife asked an interesting question: Do I think that human beings are inherently rational. I think the answer is emphatically no. Human beings have the ability...
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