Skepdick wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 4:31 pm
PTH wrote: ↑Sun Sep 08, 2019 3:25 pm
In fairness, that's not a maybe. Its a no.
In fairness, nobody can hold you to account on this meaningless assertion.
Even if science were to pull an artificial consciousness out of a hat tomorrow, we can't even establish whether it meets your expectations for being a "sufficient explanation". You are working over-time at avoiding commitment as to what your expectations from an "explanation" are.
Philosophical insurance is the equivalent of "not even wrong".
Tbh, I think its more that you're not taking into account where the matter rests.
Absolutely, part of the problem is not being clear about what exactly consciousness is (as in what exactly we mean when we say 'consciousness') - and what would demonstrate it, if we were all able to agree on what we mean. And this is a difficult question; if it was easy, someone would have an answer that we'd all agree with, a definition or meaning that we all saw to be adequate.
Where it currently stands, some of us regard consciousness as a thing that can't be denied - and it looks unconvincing when someone makes statements that either deny it, or say some that is close to denying it.
And, also filling out the context, is the fact that we don't have machines wandering around that seem so human we can't tell the difference. So, for now, there's no more need to consider how exactly we'd test for consciousness, any more than we need to consider how exactly we test someone claiming to be a time traveller.
If a someone switched on a chess programme on a computer, and the computer replied "I just don't want to play chess today" - in a context where this wasn't an expected feature of the computer - it might mean there was something to explain. Until then, there really isn't.
Again, that might be something to reflect on to understand why folk don't just accept your view as satifactory. The point isn't whether Alexa switching on the lights is a good example of conscious behavior, making it identical to any other entity that we might claim to have consciousness. Up to a point, its nearly about how Alexa doesn't do inexplicable things. Like demanding full political rights, and voting for Nigel Farage.