We Are Unique discussion
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Emergent Properties in Philosophy & Science and ME
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Yeah, that's a problem. If we were like computers, then we could be replaced by them. But I don't think they can ever be self-aware. Simple machines are certainly not self-aware and I don't see how making them more complicated or elegant like an AI computer would change that. Even with a flock of birds, even though each bird follows simple rules, and the flock as a whole operates in an intelligent way, far more advanced than the individual, that doesn't mean that "a flock brain has emerged that is self-aware."
Um, Doug, are you saying that a neuron firing in the brain obeys simple rules regarding the local neurons around it, like a bird in a flock, and that the whole brain is like the whole flock, and would have no self-awareness even though it acts intelligently,
UNLESS
there is an added element outside the material "meat computer" (as someone named it once[can't remember who] )". { Thanks Petitcroissant. Pretty cool, but I hope I don't get lost }
Joyce, are you calling me a birdbrain? Nobody ever calls me that, except maybe once, but I don't think that counts:Avian Translation
I’ve always wanted to speak
to the smaller birds, so
I’ve done a lot of weird whistling.
Sometimes a little birdie cocks her head
and tries to see if I’m a threat or a bird benevolent,
but I’m neither a mate nor predator, just
a conversationalist
So I whistle something which means
“give tomatoes to Owls, like Caesar.”
And she says, “Huh, what? And
for a Human you don’t look so bad
even though you have no feathers.
Why is it that you can’t fly?
It’s so easy.”
And I said, “Why is it that
you can’t speak and write novels.”
“Well, then,” it said, “have you written one lately?”
And I said, “Um, no…”
And it said in a way that I think it meant kindly that
I was a birdbrain.
Joyce, are you a bird or a little crisp and flaky roll?
No, what
me
call you a birdbrain? No, not unless your brain has feathers. Moi?Does not the crowd hear that I have come to the square to praise you, mon cher ami, but seems like Greek to me, and I have my loves in English and in dreams.
I have come in feathers and lace to praise you, but you speak too soon when I am on a roll, my thoughts crisp, and methinks you stare at my body and think I'm flaky.
If there'd be an audience of birds, I will throw them my rolls, if they would become stale and grainy. But grain is for beer to make.
Share a beer with me before it is stale. Hark, be a lark if not a hawk. For
I am on a roll



The firing of neurons in the brain is governed by the "laws" of physics, chemistry, and biology. If that were all there was, then given a particular environmental input there would be only one possible response. There would be no free will.
I don't think we're just organic computers governed by the the material laws of biology. We're more willy nilly. Willie Nelson's not bad either, but that's another song and dance altogether.