> From: Lowing, Ben <brl196@soton.ac.uk>
>
> Do you think that the 'intelligent' application of rules to new
> situations would be essential before we could describe a machine as
> being conscious?
Consciousness is not directly at issue here (though it's certainly
lurking in the wings). And computers can already apply rules to new
situations. The problem is with what CANNOT be done with symbols
and rules alone.
> If there is no frame to our knowledge, how do we explain it? Is this
> application of knowledge what separates us from machines? Or is it our
> feelings, which we describe as emotions?
It's feelings; but they seem to be lock-step with whatever
real knowledge will turn out to be; we can already rule out
that it's just computation.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Feb 13 2001 - 16:23:51 GMT