Relation to the world· Mind and consciousness
The substrate does not matter
Axis: Can a machine think — Could a machine ever truly think?
To think is to process information in a certain way, whatever the substrate that carries out this processing. If a machine performs the same functions as a brain, there is no ground for denying that it thinks.
- Descriptive Thought experimentThe Chinese Room
Locked in a room, one answers flawlessly in Chinese by following a rulebook, without understanding a word: is running a program ever understanding, or only giving every sign of it?
a mind that understands - Descriptive Thought experimentThe imitation game
If, in a blind conversation, nothing tells the machine from a person, must we grant it thought, or does passing for a mind never prove there is one?
a conversation - DescriptiveIntelligence without a body
A program processes signs outside any world; but grasping a situation, acting with tact, may require a living body that inhabits it, which the disembodied machine lacks.
a disembodied intelligence - DescriptiveDoes the substrate matter?
If the exact organization of your brain were reproduced by a whole people passing messages, would that crowd really think, or do only certain materials yield a mind?
the substrate of thought - DescriptiveThinking, or feeling
Reasoning is one thing, feeling another: a machine might compute everything without there being "something it is like" to be it, thought with no consciousness at all.
a machine's inner feel - PrescriptiveMoralWould we owe it anything?
If a machine thought, would it have interests, a dignity, rights, or would it remain a thing we dispose of, owing it nothing?
a thinking machine