> "The opposite of consciousness" is not a meaningful criterion of interest. I'm not even sure it's a meaningful term.
Then let me rephrase: The state that you are in when you are not asleep nor anesthetised nor in a coma. (I’m assuming you wrote consciousness rather than unconsciousness as an autocomplete typo not as a misreading, I’m having to edit a lot of comments for that reason today).
(Also, strange example with fire and rocks, given there is one axis on which fire does rise for the opposite cause of rocks falling: buoyancy)
> Many of these tests you're outlining arent relevant to the question "does this robot have what we are interested in"
I listed them because it was not clear what you are interested in when you say “intelligence”. You have improved one step by saying “understanding”, but that has nine meanings lf its own, half of which point back to “intelligence” without adding anything useful to my mental model of what you might be trying to describe.
Now, with regards to your dogs-vs.-spinning-tops comparison. I totally accept that spinning tops are not intelligent. I do not understand how you decided to fit spinning tops against definition 1. I believe dogs are intelligent. I cannot prove dogs are intelligent by definitions 2, 3, or 4, only by definition 1 — can you? Can you demonstrate that a dog has any of “thoughts, concepts, ideas, imagination”? Again, I believe they do, but I cannot prove any of those things and I am aware of both the risk of anthropomorphism and of dehumanising (ironic word in this context, but it fits) their minds.
Finally, why do you believe that neuro-biomechanical processes are fundamentally capable of things that silicon cannot do? What makes it special?
Then let me rephrase: The state that you are in when you are not asleep nor anesthetised nor in a coma. (I’m assuming you wrote consciousness rather than unconsciousness as an autocomplete typo not as a misreading, I’m having to edit a lot of comments for that reason today).
(Also, strange example with fire and rocks, given there is one axis on which fire does rise for the opposite cause of rocks falling: buoyancy)
> Many of these tests you're outlining arent relevant to the question "does this robot have what we are interested in"
I listed them because it was not clear what you are interested in when you say “intelligence”. You have improved one step by saying “understanding”, but that has nine meanings lf its own, half of which point back to “intelligence” without adding anything useful to my mental model of what you might be trying to describe.
Now, with regards to your dogs-vs.-spinning-tops comparison. I totally accept that spinning tops are not intelligent. I do not understand how you decided to fit spinning tops against definition 1. I believe dogs are intelligent. I cannot prove dogs are intelligent by definitions 2, 3, or 4, only by definition 1 — can you? Can you demonstrate that a dog has any of “thoughts, concepts, ideas, imagination”? Again, I believe they do, but I cannot prove any of those things and I am aware of both the risk of anthropomorphism and of dehumanising (ironic word in this context, but it fits) their minds.
Finally, why do you believe that neuro-biomechanical processes are fundamentally capable of things that silicon cannot do? What makes it special?