1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.
  2. Hey Guest, is it this your first time on the forums?

    Visit the Beginner's Box

    Introduce yourself, read some of the ins and outs of the community, access to useful links and information.

    Dismiss Notice

Comments on Profile Post by Hella

  1. Contrary
    Contrary
    Is that some allegory of the cave bullshit? I once know a guy who did existentialism.
    Feb 19, 2013
  2. Hella
    Hella
    Nah, it's to do with the problems of calling robots persons. They have no qualia nor intentionality, which are both things that humans and other higher animals supposedly have.
    Feb 19, 2013
  3. Contrary
    Contrary
    *strokes beard* tell me more
    Feb 19, 2013
  4. Hella
    Hella
    Some people feel that robots have the potential to be person, if not now then in future. Presumably this is so they'll be able to build themselves a girlfriend.

    Their main reasoning is that, physically, they could very easily outclass the mental capabilities of humans, and humans are our general benchmark for personhood. Our brain is, after all, essentially a super-awesome biological computer.
    Feb 19, 2013
  5. Hella
    Hella
    Key opposition to the debate the idea that robots lack certain characteristics: qualia and intentionality.

    Qualia is the raw feels of an experience, such the 'burny-hot-hot' of boiling coffee, and other emotions. All they could do, in theory, is detect that something is extremely hot. They can't feel the actual pain of holding something like that.
    Feb 19, 2013
  6. Hella
    Hella
    Intentionality, on the other hand, is having a motive behind your actions. Robots simply run from code, and have no actual realisation of what they are doing.
    Feb 19, 2013
  7. Hella
    Hella
    This is best illustrated with an example. There's this dude locked in a room, and he has this big-ass manual with him. Chinese people feed questions on cards written in chinese through to him, and he passes cards back according to instructions written in the manual.
    He didn't understand chinese, so he wasn't actually answering their questions; he had no intentionality behind his actions.
    Feb 19, 2013
  8. Contrary
    Contrary
    ah neat. i knew what qualia means obviously but i had not heard of intentionality before. cool cool stuff
    Feb 19, 2013
  9. Hella
    Hella
    This is what studying philosophy does to you. ;-;
    Feb 20, 2013
  10. Kouji
    Kouji
    Problem with your robots never being humans argument Hella: Who's to say that people have qualia and intentionality? Who's to say that the complex chemical interactions in the universe aren't going to continue happening in a set way, and since those chemical interactions determine our decisions. If they are set in stone, then we don't really ever choose do we?
    Feb 20, 2013
  11. Kouji
    Kouji
    Basically, in a way, chemically, our brain works the same way as your man inside a room. And that we simply think that we have intentionality. And that case, why can't we make robot think it has intentionality as well?
    Feb 20, 2013
  12. Hella
    Hella
    Hehe. I was just outlining the general topic from the points that we'd learnt about.

    I personally don't bend that way; I feel that if a being can show the 'necessary' characteristics, such as language, autonomy, etc, to a greater degree, then they have every right to fit into our shitty little person club. :)
    Feb 20, 2013
  13. Kouji
    Kouji
    Fair enough.
    Feb 20, 2013
  14. Hella
    Hella
    There is, though, a whole load of tests designed to look at robots and their personhood potential, like the Turing test. If an AI/robot can fool most people into thinking it is a person during conversation, then it's basically a person. Something like that.
    Feb 20, 2013
  15. Contrary
    Contrary
    i listened to a really good podcast about that one time. cant find it though.
    Feb 25, 2013
  16. Contrary
    Feb 25, 2013
  17. LadyHawk
    LadyHawk
    that was....interesting.
    (Hella's Story that is)
    Mar 13, 2013