Fenn thinks that the algorithms that run Kinna's robot pet animal must be capable of learning and of flexibility and that:
"There might actually be a nonalgorithmic, quantum element - which would make it technically a sophotect, though an electrophotonic system this size couldn't be smarter than, say, a dog." (p. 182)
Both consciousness and quantum mechanics are mysterious so the two mysteries might be connected - or they might not. Quantum mechanics is part of the objective realm accessible to empirical science whereas states of consciousness are not objective but subjective. Objective conditions generate consciousness which then involves a distinction between objectivity and subjectivity. Scientists can understand objective conditions but not subjectivity. Looking at someone else's neurons does not show us his experiences or thoughts.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
About all that scientists can really say is that they objectively know consciousness exists, but they can't really explain how or why it exists and works. So, I remain skeptical of materialism.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
There are different issues here. Empirical science is about objective data: data that can be seen by everyone. That is the only reason why I say that scientists cannot understand consciousness. Consciousness is subjective, not objective. Scientists can observe objectively detectable neurons but not subjectively known experiences or thoughts. However, surely it is clear that neurons somehow cause experiences and thoughts?
Materialism is only the philosophical theory that mass/energy/objective reality preexisted consciousness, exists independently of consciousness and indeed has become conscious. Materialism is not the now discredited scientific theory that reality is nothing but mechanically interacting particles with only the quantifiable properties of mass and volume. That is mechanical materialism and should not be identified with or confused with philosophical materialism. But, if we just use the word, "materialism," without any further qualification, then we talk past each other.
Surely scientists can explain the emergence of consciousness from what were previously unconscious biological processes? Naturally selected organismic sensitivity to environmental alterations quantitatively increased until it was qualitatively transformed into conscious sensation: a qualitative transformation like the change from solid to liquid when ice melts, like the change from liquid to gas when water boils, like the sudden appearance of a third color when two previously existent colors are mixed.
Paul.
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