Posted: Dec 06, 2017 12:24 pm
DavidMcC wrote:Graham, it's not just the world that can't be reset, humans can't be reset the way robots can, at least in principle.
[aside]Indeed, that is probably one of the most fundamental difference between humans and robots, apart from the fact that robots are, by definition, man-made machines and humans aren't.[/aside]
That may be the case, but how do you know ? It can't be done in practice, but why is it impossible in principle?
Can we even say what would be required? I don't think so. We can speculate. Maybe controlling the connectome so that the same connections exist between neurons. Maybe controlling the cell chemistry to get all neurons in the same state ready to fire within some tolerance. Maybe we wouldn't need to reset every neuron, or every synapse, since we are talking about some high level functions of "conscious choice". List coined "agential states". Maybe agential states can be realised with a lot of variability at the biological level. Maybe it would need manipulation right down to the molecular level or even smaller scale.
For robots we don't need to reset at molecular scale or even the scale of individual logic gates The 'agential level' there can be quite high level data structures.
I make no claims here about what could be done in practice or principle. My point is that we don't know so it's rash to claim 'fundamental difference and things being impossible in principle.