Space Settlement

Hi Tom:

Concience is a even bigger problem than intelligence. The fact is:
nobody knows what it is, either is
called "awareness", "being", "self" or whatever. Who say he knows is
not telling the truth.

Perhaps one day someone will find the way of build "simulacras"
(Phillip K. Dick) of human intelligence good enough to fool us.
After all, it seem you could imitate some brain process with
machinery. However, what do we know about concience? Why animals
feel pain? what is "feel"? I have no idea and I can bet money (I am
sure I win) that nobody else knows.

That's a pretty bad start to build a model of "awareness".

Omar

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "tom.bielecki"
wrote:
>
> Now, I wasn't reffering to Uploads, actually. But I am glad that
you
> brought up that point.
>
> I was thinking more along the lines of having something like the
> neurological structure of an infant being recreated, in the most
> primitive of forms, and having it evolve by itself to what we would
> call "intelligence." Now, of course, If you had the computing
ability
> to do that, then you would be able to upload the conscience of an
> adult, but that is not my intended purpose. I was thinking about
and
> evolving intelligence, with a biological framework, created in a
> virtual context.
>
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Lucio de Souza Coelho"
> wrote:
> >
> > On 3/20/07, tom.bielecki wrote:
> > (...)
> > > Do you (or anybody else) believe that and artificial
intelligence
> > > could be created by making a computer model of the brain
itself?
> Do we
> > > fully understand how the neuron works, and evolves, with
information?
> > > Maybe the best way of creating AI is to recreate it using the
> original
> > > biological conditions. (I believe this could occur, because
of the
> > > shear speed of quantum operations, and how well they could,
> > > theoretically, model biological systems, in the future)
> >
> > You are talking about Uploads, apparently: simulations of human
minds
> > in computers. The would-be ultimate form of immortality.
> >
> > This is not exactly AI, though, in the sense that you could
create an
> > Upload of yourself and any other living human and in the end you
would
> > still know nothing about how the human mind works; you would just
> > understand the basic, low-level functioning of neurons and their
> > connections, and would continue with no idea whatsoever about how
> > those tiny thinghies flashing signals to each other can create
> > high-level phenomena such as consciousness.
> >
> > Moreover, those "artificial intelligences" would still be
humans, for
> > all practical purposes. They would not be superintelligent or be
able
> > to process information not tailored for humans. (e.g., they
wouldn't
> > be able to see five-dimensional objects.) And oddly, even though
they
> > would be "just computer programs", they would still even feel
bodily
> > necessities such as eating and having sex (and would likely have
to