[eu-gene] Generative or not? cubo23

[alex]

On Tue, 2006-02-21 at 00:37 -0500, Michael Gogins wrote:
> It is an open question in philosophy whether humans are Turing machines. If 
> so then computers may some day be conscious and think as we do. If not then 
> computers (at least those that are Turing machines) may never be conscious 
> or truly think.
> 
> The question is extraordinarily difficult. It is not a scientific question 
> because in principle a computer could provide an effective simulation of a 
> human being, whether or not the computer was in fact conscious or truly 
> thinking.

There's a train of thought which I enjoy very much, which is that
consciousness is a simulation.  In order to predict what might happen to
them so that they can prepare for oncoming danger, our bodies evolved so
that they could run a simulation of the world around them.  Some
evolutionary steps later sees the body running two simulations, one of
the world, and one of the body itself.  The two simulations interact.
The simulation of the body is consciousness.

Well, that's my naive interpretation of a lecture I saw by Owen Holland,
please refer to him for more information:
http://cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/owen/research.htm


alex