In message <4.1.19990104143053.053aef10@lucifer.com>, David McFadzean
<david@lucifer.com> writes
>At 08:02 PM 1/4/99 +0000, Robin Faichney wrote:
>
>>Sorry, I don't agree either with this, or with what
>>you just said to Richard. By far the biggest problem
>>with consciousness is that we do not understand just
>>what the word refers to -- so there's no way we can
>>just assume we mean the same by it.
>
>I think the term "alive" has all the same problems.
>Do you also claim you can't say whether or not you
>are alive?
Depends for what purpose. For practical purposes, yes, of course I'm alive. But am I *really* alive? Can't say, because the word isn't sufficiently well defined. I agree "conscious" and "alive" are similar in some ways. But it seems we disagree on whether the question "could a machine really be conscious" is a practical or a theoretical one. It seems obviously the latter, to me, but apparently not to you.
-- Robin