Brian Scholl (1994) Intuitions, Agnosticism, and Conscious Robots
. Psycoloquy: 5(84) Robot Consciousness (4)
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Psycoloquy 5(84): Intuitions, Agnosticism, and Conscious Robots
INTUITIONS, AGNOSTICISM, AND CONSCIOUS ROBOTS
Book review of Bringsjord on Robot-Consciousness
Brian Scholl
Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science
Rutgers University
Piscataway, NJ 08855
scholl@ruccs.rutgers.edu
Abstract
One of the main theses of Bringsjord's "What Robots Can
and Can't Be" (1992, 1994) is that cognitive engineers will NEVER
be able to build real people (who enjoy consciousness, etc). I
maintain here that each of the six main arguments he uses to
support this thesis rests on crucial question-begging intuitions,
about which we really ought to remain agnostic.
Keywords
behaviorism, Chinese Room Argument, cognition,
consciousness, finite automata, free will, functionalism,
introspection, mind, story generation, Turing machines, Turing
Test.
References
- Bringsjord, S. (1992). What Robots Can and Can't Be. Boston: Kluwer Academic.
- Bringsjord, S. (1994). Precis of: What Robots Can and Can't Be. PSYCOLOQUY 5(59) robot-consciousness.1.bringsjord.
- Dennett, D. (1981). Reflections [on A Conversation With Einstein's Brain]. In The Mind's I, D. Hofstadter & D. Dennett (eds.), 457-460, New York: Bantam.
- Dennett, D. (1993). Living on the Edge. Inquiry, 36, 135-159.
- Jackson, F. (1982). Epiphenomenal Qualia. Philosophical Quarterly, 27, 127-136.
- Nagel, T. (1974). What Is it Like to Be a Bat? Reprinted in Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
- Pylyshyn, Z. (1984). Computation and Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Searle, J. (1980). Minds, Brains, and Programs. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3:417-457.