andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> Is there something special about
> biological systems taht they and only they can be
> conscious? Or couldn't an AI, if it got smart enough,
> wake up with all the puzzles about consciousness we
> have? jks
>
I have no very strong opinions on the general question of AI, though I do like Justin's earlier insistence on seeing humanity as part of the natural world rather than existing above or beyond it.
But here he raises another interesting point.
As we have them now, computers never make mistakes, or if they do make mistakes it is because their user fed them garbage (either in the form of the instructions from the programmer or data from the user). But if computers begin to think for themselves, would they not also begin to make mistakes, to disagree wildly with each other?
Would that not in fact be the proper test to apply? Computers are thinking if and only if they are making mistakes and disagreeing with each other????
Carrol