[Wittrs] Bogus Claim 5: Searle Contradicts Himself
- From: Joseph Polanik <jpolanik@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:25:06 -0400
SWM wrote:
>he [Searle] is in self-contradiction, holding one idea of consciousness
>with regard to brains, another re: computers.
>He gets by, doing that, by avoiding explicating how he supposes brains
>do it (leaving that to science). But the mere supposition that brains
>do it in a system way, dependent on physical processes, suggests that
>other physical platforms could do the same and computers are physical
>platforms, too. So the issue is why can't computers do it?
>His argument purports to make a case that they can't because of what
>they are, i.e., they are abstract in nature, just syntax as he likes to
>say. But computers are no more abstract, no more syntactical, than
>brains as far as we know. The obvious differences between brains and
>computers are that computers are manmade, consist of inorganic
>materials, and run on the principle of electrons flowing through
>gateways embedded in silicon chips while brains are naturally
>occurring, organic (cellular based on organic chemistry) and operate on
>a chemical basis to generate their much slower electrical charges.
nothing in what you've just said shows that Searle contradicts himself.
he merely contradicts you.
you are mistaken to say that Searle believes that computers can not be
conscious.
"Another misunderstanding is to suppose that I am denying that a given
phsyical computer might have consciousness as an 'emergent property'.
After all, if brains can have consciousness as an emergent property, why
not other sorts of machinery?" ["Consciousness as a biological problem"]
Searle's actual claim (from the CRA) is that computers can't be
conscious merely by virtue of running a program.
it's also a mistake to say that Searle discriminates against computers.
he concludes (in the CRA) that brains can't be conscious just by running
a program.
Joe
--
Nothing Unreal is Self-Aware
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