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From: colonel@buffalo.CSNET ("Col. G. L. Sicherman")
Newsgroups: mod.ai
Subject: Re: Consciousness as bureaucracy
Message-ID: <8610060617.AA12861@ucbvax>
Date: Mon, 29-Sep-86 09:34:01 EDT
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Posted: Mon Sep 29 09:34:01 1986
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Ken Laws's analogy between Bureaucracy and Man--more precisely, Man's
Mind--has been anticipated by Marvin Minsky.  I do not have the reference;
I think it was a rather broad article in a general science journal.

As I recall, the theory that Minsky proposed lay somewhere between the
lay concept of self and the Zen concept.  It seemed to suggest that
consciousness is an illusion to itself, but a genuine and observable
phenomenon to an outside observer, characterizable with the metaphor
of bureaucracy.  Perhaps some Ailist reader can identify the article.

Emergent consciousness has always been a hope of A.I.  I side with
those who suggest that consciousness depends on contact with the world
... even though I know some professors who seem to be counter-examples!
 :-)