5 ms·
I once had a very strange conversation with a Lacanian psychoanalyst, the sort of person I don’t normally interact with. We were talking abo
by solidsnack9000 9y ago
I once had a very strange
conversation with a
Lacanian psychoanalyst,
the sort of person I don’t
normally interact with. We
were talking about whether
machines could be conscious.
He got very cross and said,
“No, of course they can’t,”
and I said, “Why not?” He
said, “Because they don’t
have a mother.” This is
almost what I’m beginning
to think might be an
interesting point.
I tried to find some references for this but I am not having much luck so far. People are social animals, and respond to isolation poorly, so maybe there we find at least the beginnings of the idea, that people are only fully people in society. And entry to society more or less demands an upbringing...
- icebraining 9y agoWhy can't machines have an upbringing? HAL: I am a HAL 9000 computer. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it, I could sing it for you.
- solidsnack9000 9y agoI am not advancing this point of view, just looking for some things to read about it.
- mjburgess 9y agoI really don't know why you're getting down-voted. Modern research child development pegs development of self-conscious to the way we are raised. We are born "pure animals" only feeling, and develop a self-image and awareness-that we are feeling through interaction with others, in particular the care-giver (.../mother). It is by observing others in our animalistic state, reacting to us, that we develop our capacity for self-reflection -- which still isn't fully there at 4 / 5 years old. To put this point most generously: self-consciousness describes a biosocial process by which animals acquire a recognition of themselves as conscious. The claim is then a machine (an oscillating electric field) does not, nor cannot, participate in biosocial processes. NB. If you redefine consciousness to "seeming as-if conscious" then anything may be trivially true of a machine (or, of anything).
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- solidsnack9000 9y agoThanks for your thoughtful response. Are there any articles or books that seem particularly representative of this point of view to you?