My computer is not a word processor. The shiny disk that says "Microsoft Office" is not a word processor. One of the programs (and associated libraries) encoded on that disk when loaded and while actively running on my computer is a word processor; it ceases to be such when I stop it. Where is the problem here?
from Ben Thonrton on the-brights forums
No, it's a word processor when it's used by someone to process words.
ex Ben Thornton
And the analogy with consciousness would only work if consciousness was also observer-relative and implemented through an algorithm, neither of which are the case.
I have no problem considering consciousness "observer relative". You essentially conceded that by agreeing that animals have at least lesser degrees of consciousness.
No the AI program as algorithm is not "conscious", Nor is the algorithm + the encoded data. Nor is the computer(s) that will run it. But algorithm embedded in the process running on the computer is.
ex Ben Thornton
No, because there is no causal power of the computer hardware to produce it (especially implausible considering the wide variety of possible implementations).
Consciousness is the qualitative ability of an entity to reasonably predict the consequential changes in its internal states in response to its own options and ability to interact with its environment.
ex Ben Thornton
Prediction and interaction don't seem to me to be the same thing as consciousness at all. It may be that consciousness has a role in better predictions, or in more complex interactions, but these don't seem to characterise it. Much of our most sophisticated prediction is not conscious.
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