From: Phillip Huggan (cdnprodigy@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Jan 15 2006 - 12:50:26 MST
The reason this argument is a strawman is because we know to some degree how emotions work. We know it really has little if any to do with computation. We know it is a chemical hormonal process. Physical not computational. Everbody knows carbon is a more versatile element for chemical processes than is silicon. This has to do with valence shells and electron affinities. Nothing to do with any computational switching. The odds of finding silicon-based life out there are zero. I would say silicon based emotions are maybe possible in principle, but impossible to engineer on present computer architectures. We're not seriously going to debate that hormones are computational, are we? We're not seriously going to suggest a person made of legos can be sad, are we?
fudley <fuddley@fastmail.fm> wrote: On Fri, 13 Jan 2006 "Phillip Huggan" said:
> Why will *computer programs* above a complexity threshold
> necessarily have feelings?
And where did people get the bizarre notion that feelings are more
difficult to come up with than intelligent action? Evolution found the
exact opposite to be true. Most emotions come from the old reptilian
part of our brain and that is about 450 million years old. The newer
part, the part that distinguishes us from other animals, the part that
comes up with smart ideas, is only about one million years old.
And that’s not the only data point we have; which do you personally find
more difficult to consistently produce, actions that are very smart or
feelings? I unfortunately have far more feelings than very smart ideas,
and I do not think I’m unusual in that regard.
You could make a stronger case that computers may someday be emotional
if they are not already, but they could never be smart; although I think
they will do both.
> I don't believe electrons and silicon will do it for
> machines the way ions and carbon does it for us.
Because everybody knows carbon is a far more emotional element than
silicon and ions are more self aware than electrons.
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