Spontaneous signals sent in the human brain in response to stimuli. The thing about computers is that their only stimuli is 0s and 1s, and their only response is 0s and 1s. They’re a complex system of switches. Humans experience the entire world of stimuli, and we made this system of switches to convey representations of the meanings we create in our brains. A computer has no mechanism to understand that the purpose of these 0s and 1s we’re sending is to ask and answer questions, to solve a problem of how to build a bridge, to come up with a compelling story to make our friends laugh. We can program it to very accurately perform an action. That’s what it can do.
Spontaneous signals sent in the human brain in response to stimuli.
This sounds a bit circular to me. Almost like saying “thinking is what brains do.”
I’m also getting the sense that you’re partly talking about consciousness there, which I would personally treat as a separate subject. It’s not obvious to me that in order to be able to think, one would also need the capacity to experience.
That’s not wrong to say though, because it’s true. Thought is a function of a brain. There’s no mechanism for non-brains to think. I think you’re confusing computation for thought. Computation can result in a product that looks like it came from thought, but computation itself fundamentally has nothing in common with thought. It’s not a spontaneous, creative response to the stimuli we experience in the world. There is no process of meaning-making. There can’t be, because it has no mechanism to understand what it’s responding to.
Brains are made of matter that obeys the laws of physics. I don’t see why that same function couldn’t be performed in silicon. I wouldn’t say our current systems can think in the sense that people understand the term, but I see no reason to assume they couldn’t in the future - or that thinking is reserved only for wet meat computers.
I don’t really see how you could make a brain out of silicone, because thought a product of cells. The cells send signals to each other, and that’s how you get thought. You could maybe grow a brain in a lab, but I don’t see how a plastic replication would work. And even if you did grow one in a lab, who knows how not being connected to a body would impact its ability to develop thought.
Spontaneous signals sent in the human brain in response to stimuli. The thing about computers is that their only stimuli is 0s and 1s, and their only response is 0s and 1s. They’re a complex system of switches. Humans experience the entire world of stimuli, and we made this system of switches to convey representations of the meanings we create in our brains. A computer has no mechanism to understand that the purpose of these 0s and 1s we’re sending is to ask and answer questions, to solve a problem of how to build a bridge, to come up with a compelling story to make our friends laugh. We can program it to very accurately perform an action. That’s what it can do.
This sounds a bit circular to me. Almost like saying “thinking is what brains do.”
I’m also getting the sense that you’re partly talking about consciousness there, which I would personally treat as a separate subject. It’s not obvious to me that in order to be able to think, one would also need the capacity to experience.
That’s not wrong to say though, because it’s true. Thought is a function of a brain. There’s no mechanism for non-brains to think. I think you’re confusing computation for thought. Computation can result in a product that looks like it came from thought, but computation itself fundamentally has nothing in common with thought. It’s not a spontaneous, creative response to the stimuli we experience in the world. There is no process of meaning-making. There can’t be, because it has no mechanism to understand what it’s responding to.
Brains are made of matter that obeys the laws of physics. I don’t see why that same function couldn’t be performed in silicon. I wouldn’t say our current systems can think in the sense that people understand the term, but I see no reason to assume they couldn’t in the future - or that thinking is reserved only for wet meat computers.
I don’t really see how you could make a brain out of silicone, because thought a product of cells. The cells send signals to each other, and that’s how you get thought. You could maybe grow a brain in a lab, but I don’t see how a plastic replication would work. And even if you did grow one in a lab, who knows how not being connected to a body would impact its ability to develop thought.
well theoretically with a computer powerful enough, one can simulate all the brain cells and effectively emulate the whole brain
I agree. We could design actual thinking AI, just not with our current technology.
That’s an unserious definition because if thinking is defined as happening in the human brain, then monkeys can’t think. Obviously monkeys can think.