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why doesn't the physical substrate of computers count as a body? It exists physically and interacts with the rest of the world (I/O). Is it just that it isn't s

• prometheus76 4y ago
  It has more to do with agency in the physical world. Having a purpose, then having the agency to fulfill the purpose, and the need to identify things that are aids in reaching the purpose, as well as things that are obstacles to the purpose, as well as everything that can be ignored, appears to be fundamental in being able to see the world. A big issue with AI driving is how AI "sees" the world. Have you ever seen a video where AI is doing object recognition in real time? The world is black and white, and the computer just draws a box around what it sees as an "object", but it has no sense of object permanence, no sense of depth, and no great methods for edge detection, especially in low-light situations. This is something we just take for granted because of our experience, but what is the difference between parts of a chair, and the chair? And if you are looking at he arm of the chair, are you also looking at the chair? We just jump up and down an ontological hierarchy effortlessly, but we can't explain how we do that, so trying to teach a computer to do that, and to see the world that way, has revealed the limits of our current models for how the brain works and for what consciousness is and what it is not.
  • contextfree 4y ago
    interesting, thanks!