| > The problem is simulations of the brain are not "machines", they are algorithms, Simulations are executed on concrete machines that exist in the real world. Algorithms are abstract concepts. > e.g. they assume everything is happening at the information processing level. Everything does happen at the information processing level. Any kind of physical process can be seen as a type of information processing. Information processing is not an abstract concept like an algorithm, for it to occur requires the time-evolution of concrete physical processes. > We can emulate the motions and powers in play in liquids, but not "wetness" in the sense of the physical property (moisture etc). The physical property is experienced as sensory input. Machines can have sensory input. > An emulation can only water emulated flowers. You are asserting that virtual reality is different from reality, which is true. That's not the GP's question. The question is whether there is a fundamental difference between machines in the real world (with sensors and arms and so on) and the human body and brain. |
This is pure philosophy, as no one yet knows the answers, but what if brain-like intelligence is an emergent property of non-deterministic processes? Wouldn't it then follow that a classical computer could not be able to compute the "think function" before the heat death of the universe?
personally my intuition says that strong AI cannot be encoded in silicon, or that it is a victim of the halting problem. I think we need a different substrate on which to model cognition. Or maybe not. Who knows?