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comment by theadvancedapes
theadvancedapes  ·  4288 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

I couldn't agree more with your comment re: computers. I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past few months wondering what it is like to be Watson. In my podcast with b_b I stated that Watson was not conscious. Is it wrong of me to just assume that? Either way, computer consciousness will be one of the big intellectual debates of coming decades.

And regarding cell consciousness, I think I'll stand by what I said. When I said Church was cheating, I really meant that he didn't get at what it was like to be a cell... he just described it's function and behaviour. Nagel did that with bats but still didn't understand what it was like to be a bat.





mk  ·  4288 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I agree that Church's conclusion says nothing about what it would be like to be a cell. However, I do think there is a “cellular experience”, however; just that it is extremely simplistic and unrecognizable by most any measure we can apply to it.

theadvancedapes  ·  4288 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's possible. I do tend to believe that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon of complexity. At the moment I am biased towards organisms with brains, but I think b_b would probably side with you.

mk  ·  4288 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think that trying to define what constitutes a brain will bring you over to our side. :)