Hey MTW,
I'll give this a shot.
mike_the_wiz writes:
Now I'm quite aware that this is an anthropomorphic concept and that it's absurd to some.
We only have one example of consciousness at a sentient level, and that is that of a person.
It's not clear that human-like intelligence could create this universe. Furthermore, it's not clear that a non-human-like intelligence COULDN'T create this universe. So... no anthropomorphic concept fits here, as far as I can tell.
Except the one where we see ourselves in everything else. We conceputalize through metaphor and through our mirror systems (our system that matches another being doing something with ourself doing the same thing). That is part of our biology. It's a human's world, because we see ourselves in everything.
mike_the_wiz writes:
That's one evidence, of one sentient entity. Is it so absurd to think as God as a person when for all we know, the only conscious entities are persons? For all we know! (My argument is NOT that we are the only sentience therefore there are no other sentient organisms)
I would say, you haven't shown what types of intelligence are necessary to create a universe. Until you do that, evidence of existence and evidence of sentience is not evidence of anything... except evidence of existence and evidence of sentience.
mike_the_wiz writes:
So if you allow a notion of aliens, as a possibility, but not God, even though his sentience is based on one evidence of a human, then you entertain a notion of a sentience, in something other than a person, even though you don't entertain sentience as a possibility, in a person (God). Can you see the problem?
Sure. You can't limit "sentience" to just one thing. I'd offer the viewpoint that only humans can have human-like sentience. An almost vacuous statement, but surprisingly is challenged often.
mike_the_wiz writes:
Even though we have one case of sentience at this level as being a person(the human species), you will attribute the possibility of this sentience to aliens, but not a claimed to be, person.
In my view that's a mistake. Human sentience is based on a lot of things that will never be replicated, including human biology, human culture, and the environment of this earth. Aliens, Gods, Orangs... none of them have these things.
Mike, you might want to read up on "Embodied Cognition" and "Distributed Cognition"; these movements suggest that minds are dependent on all of these important factors. Human-like AI is only possible in the case that robots and robotic environment converges on humans and human-like environment.
This message has been edited by Ben, Friday, 2005/10/28 09:02 AM