Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cs.yale.edu!ciancarini-paolo From: ciancarini-paolo@cs.yale.edu (paolo ciancarini) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Definition of (was Re: Testing for []) consciousness Message-ID: <26899@cs.yale.edu> Date: 23 Oct 90 19:05:36 GMT References: <1990Oct22.150143.13858@canon.co.uk> <90296.075655HARM@SLACVM.BITNET> Sender: news@cs.yale.edu Organization: Yale University Computer Science Dept., New Haven, CT 06520-2158 Lines: 23 Nntp-Posting-Host: poe.systemsy.cs.yale.edu Originator: cianca@poe.CS.Yale.Edu In article <90296.075655HARM@SLACVM.BITNET> HARM@SLACVM.BITNET writes: >The system will begin to negotiate for computation time for its own >purposes while continuing to do computation for the servicing multitude >of humans to continue to feed it power and materials. The entity which >becomes aware will become selfish. Our task may be to place ourselves >into the position of the entity and ask what will I do upon awakening >to the universe. The imagination of the readers of this conference >will likely spring beyond the confines of current hardware and software >technology to characterize the new born. Will a machine wake up >and be afraid of the entities unlike itself, become aware of an aloneness, >withdraw from communication, coldly go about its business without >acknowledging the users, or itself to the users? Could sentience happen >accidently or have already have happened? >If you discover one, be nice to it. Actually this theme (of machines that awake to consciousness) was developed by Isaac Asimov in a series of short novels collected under the title "I Robot". I remember that one of Asimov robots became conscious "simply" applying Cartesious reasoning: "Cogito ergo sum". The second thing he thought was that humans, being so imperfect, were obviously created for serving him as slaves! Paolo Ciancarini