In article <3i8a7m$gkk at uuneo.neosoft.com> mckee at starbase.neosoft.com (George McKee) writes:
> Neurologists have a fairly standard set of tests they perform to determine
> they perform when they need to determine (for insurance purposes, or
> press announcements) if a patient is conscious or not. I'm not a
> neurologist, and don't have any textbooks handy that tell me what all
> these tests are, but they include the ability to answer simple questions,
> like "what is your name?", "where are you?", and "what day is today?"
> The Internet has the ability to answer questions via posting to
> newsgroups, but it doesn't talk about itself, only its users.
I am afraid this topic is becoming moot and stale, but I do believe
I missed an important point. Although I griped since internet has
no intentionality (* a very losely defined term, but I use it the
same sense as Hume *), it cannot be considered concious, I did not
imply that it would fail the immitation (or question and answer game).
In the same way, we can complain that the brain does not actually
compute functions (most of the glia could very well be structural
reinforcement), but the individual neruons perform most of the work.
Are users subunits of a mass network ?
Still, the internet would fail the conventional neruology tests for
higher order intelligence. I am unaware of any test scientifically
labeled for determining conciousness (In my opinion, a human is
unable to ever prove it).. The usual test battery does not involve
a series of questions, but a series x-rays, pet's and eeg's to pinpoint
the centers for higher order intelligence.
Therefore, I challenge everybody, is it possible to develop a test
for conciousness ? For suggestions, examine the work of Searle and
Turing.
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KEVIN HELLMAN kevin at head.neurology.wisc.edu
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LAB: (608)-265-5343 University of Wisconsin
Neurology & Neural Simulation
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--
*****************************************************
KEVIN HELLMAN kevin at head.neurology.wisc.edu
*****************************************************
LAB: (608)-265-5343 University of Wisconsin
Neurology & Neural Simulation
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