minds and machines - chalmers final

hell

pineal gland

A small gland in the middle of the brain, between the hemispheres.

Descartes: Mind and body interact via the pineal gland.

the vivarium

A pure virtual world: digital physics and digital minds.

two versions of dualism

Interactionism

Epiphenomenalism

epiphenomenalism

The mind is epiphenomenal: it has no effects at all on the physical world.

The body affects the mind, but the mind does not affect the body.

interactionism

the non-physical mind affects the brain and the body

Materialism

The view that everything is physical.

The world is fundamentally physical: everything else is made of physical things.

mind-brain identity theory

The theory that mental states are identical to brain states. The mind is the brain.

A form of materialism developed in Australia in the late 1950s.

identity statement

A statement that asserts the equivalence of two expressions, often used in discussions of mind-brain identity theory.

Two things are identical.

scientific identity

identity statement discovered empirically through science

ex.. water = h2o

functionalism

mental states are functional states.

Functional states are higher-level physical states, not tied to any specific biology, like the states of a computer.

consciousness

The subjective experience of mind and world.

A system is conscious if there is something it is like to be that system

the essence of the mental is…

thinking

bodies don’t think, minds don’t have extension

the essence of the physical is…

extension (size)

bodies don’t think, minds don’t have extension

idealism

everything is mental, so the body is mental. the body is part of the mind.

ancient: buddha

modern: berkeley

contemporary: various

dualism

everything is physical or mental. the body is physical but the mind is non-physical. mind and body are distinct.

ancient: plato

modern: descartes

contemporary: jackson

the mind seems to affect the _____ and vice versa.

body

the brain seems to affect the _____ and vice versa.

mind

What is the body? What is the brain?

the body: a biological physical system

the brain: a subsystem of the body located in our heads

what are the mental states?

perception, bodily sensation, emotion, thinking, desiring, action

the mind

the locus of thinking, perceiving, feeling, reasoning, and acting

philosophical zombie

a physical and behavioral duplicate of an ordinary conscious being, but without any conscious experience.

varieties of zombies

Behavioral zombies: Behave somewhat like humans but aren’t conscious

Functional zombies: Functional isomorphs without consciousness.

Physical zombies: physical duplicates without consciousness.

Illusionism

Consciousness is an illusion!

There’s no such thing as consciousness. No one has subjective experience. We think that we’re conscious, but it’s an illusion.

Panpsychism

Consciousness is everywhere!

the thesis that everything has a mind. (“Pan” = all; “psych” = mind).

or sometimes, the thesis that fundamental physical entities (such as quarks and photons) are conscious

consciousness is built into the fundamental levels of physical reality.

Change blindness

It’s often hard to notice changes in your visual field.

Inattentional Blindness

We often don’t notice things we’re not paying attention to.

Partial Illusion

we have less consciousness than we think we do.

Primitivism

consciousness is a fundamental element of reality, like mass, time, space, and charge.

fundamental theory

a theory of the fundamental properties and fundamental laws that underlie everything.

Cosmopsychism

The whole universe has a mind. Our minds are part of the cosmic mind.

also reminiscent of idealism, where everything is happening in God’s mind.

the extended mind

some of the tools we use (e.g. computers and smartphones) become parts of our mind, even though they are outside the brain and the body.

the tools we use can become part of our body.

sensory knowledge

what i have accepted until now has come through the senses - but the sense have sometimes deceived me and it is unwise to trust those who have deceived us

pure sim hypothesis:

we are simulated creatures in a simulation

impure sim hypothesis

we are unsimulated creatures connected to a simulation

simulation hypothesis

we are and always have been receiving our sensory inputs from an artificially designed computer simulation of a world

hedonism

all value ultimately derives from conscious experience / overindulgence

local simulation hypothesis

only my local environment is simulated, not all of physical space-time

structuralism

if the mathematical structure is present, the physical theories are true

in a simulation, the mathematical structure is present

creation hypothesis

our world (the physical spacetime we experience) was created by a being outside this world

skeptical hypothesis

you might be dreaming - zhuang zi

you might be being fooled by an evil demon - descartes

you might be in a computer sim - contemporary

external-world skepticism

we don’t know anything about the external world

knowledge and belief

if you know something you believe it

matrix version

how can we know whether he’s in the physical world remembering a simulation or if he’s in a simulation remembering the physical world

epistemology

what is knowledge?

can we know anything at all? (skepticism)

simulation hypothesis

are we living in a computer sim?

immortality and identity

old question: is there life after death?

new: could your mind be uploaded to a computer so that it survives the death of your body

technophilosophy

combines philosophical inquiry about technology with the use of technology to explore traditional philosophical questions

technological determinism

the belief that technological development occurs autonomously and significantly impacts society, culture, and human levels?

equivalence

the simulation hypothesis is equivalent to the it-from-bit creation hypothesis

it-from-bit: our physical world is made of bits

creation: all this was set up by a creator

cogito ergo sum

i doubt, therefore i think, therefore i am

no-illusion view

simulations are not illusions

if i’m in a sim, it seems to me that i have hands and i do. it seems to me that there’s a table in front of me and there is.

metaphysical hypothesis

equivalent to a hypothesis about the underlying metaphysical nature of our world

dogmatism

refusing to take the skeptic seriously

i am more sure that i have hands than i am of any philosophical reasoning

verificationism

for a hypothesis about the world to be meaningful it has to be verifiable as true or false by empirical means

Descartes dualism

there are two fundamental components to reality : matter and mind

mechanical and computer sims

mechanical sims use physical motions of parts to reflect the dynamics of the simulated system

computer sims use changes in information to reflect the dynamics of the simulated system

socially extended mind

When a person functions as part of another’s mind.

e.g. one person acts as repository of another’s memory.

Implicit biases

Unconscious biases that we’re not aware of.

artificial intelligence

building machines that can do things that require intelligence when done by humans.

or, building intelligent machines

Articial General Intelligence (AGI)

replicates the many capacities of an autonomous intelligent system.

Intelligence

the behavioral capacities

mind

the underlying mental states

the Imitation Game

Turing’s 1949 article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence” addressed the question of whether machines can think, and devised a test for minds in machines.

usually called “The Turing Test”. If the interrogator can’t identify the computer with greater than 50% accuracy: the computer has passed the Turing test.

AI terminology: AI, AI+, AI++

AI: intelligence of human level or greater

AI+: intelligence of greater than human level

AI++: intelligence of far greater than human level.

Asimov’s Laws of Robotics

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Mind uploading

the transfer of human minds to computers, by creating computer emulations of the whole brain.

Gradual uploading

gradually scan brain and replace neurons by chips one at a time.

Instant uploading

scan and activate immediately.

Delayed uploading

scan brain now, activated later.

Personal Identity and Social Identity

Personal identity = what makes you the same person over time

Social/psychological identity = what categories you identify as

Two different people can have the same social identity but different personal identities

The same person can change their social identity without changing personal identity

Areas of Philosophy

Metaphysics (philosophy of reality)

Epistemology (philosophy of knowledge)

Philosophy of mind

Ethics (philosophy of value)

Philosophy of technology