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