Re: virus: FAQ: new questions

Robin Faichney (robin@faichney.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 19 Jun 1999 14:58:09 +0100

In message <000101beba57$02613a40$c1243fce@rb4010>, Richard Brodie <richard@brodietech.com> writes
>In message <002a01beb91d$9de9fbe0$6f243fce@rb4010>, Richard Brodie
><richard@brodietech.com> writes
>>A conscious being
>>will, before making a decision, imagine what it would be like to do it and
>>feed the results of that thought experiment back into the decision.
>
>Surely any information-processing system that was capable of modelling
>would do this, without having to be conscious?
>--
>Robin Faichney
>
>Well, if that's the definition of conscious, then I suppose such a
system
>could be called conscious. What is an example of such a system?

Any sufficiently powerful, appropriately programmed computer. I'm not saying that one exists right now, but it will within a very few years. On the other hand, of course, that may not be "the" definition of consciousness.

-- 
Robin Faichney
Visit The Conscious Machine at
http://www.conscious-machine.com