RE: The dangers of genuine ignorance (was: Volitional Morality and Action Judgement)

From: fudley (fuddley@fastmail.fm)
Date: Fri May 28 2004 - 08:44:52 MDT


On Thu, 27 May 2004 22:54:52 -0700, "Mike" <mikew12345@cox.net> said:

>If you write one program that solves a problem using brute-force
>method,and another that uses heuristics to arrive at a solution
>much faster, is it correct to say that the second one is more
>intelligent than the first? If so, that would be some degree
>of intelligence without consciousness.

You seem to be assuming that intelligence without consciousness is
possible, or at least, easier to come up with than intelligence with
consciousness. What a strange idea. If that were true why did random
mutation and natural selection bother to produce an animal that was
conscious in the first place? Our inner mental lives may be supremely
important to us but to evolution only external actions are important; an
intelligent zombie that acts the same way we do would work just fine from
evolution’s point of view and there would be no point in going to the
trouble to come up with consciousness unless you can’t have intelligence
without consciousness.

John K Clark

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