We Are Unique discussion

    There is a problem with logic and science. If it were to be followed strictly then nobody would be unique. I think that dilemma was touched on in the movie The Matrix .
    The firing of neurons in the brain is governed by the "laws" of physics, chemistry, and biology. If that were all there was, then given a particular environmental input there would be only one possible response. There would be no free will.
    I don't think we're just organic computers governed by the the material laws of biology. We're more willy nilly. Willie Nelson's not bad either, but that's another song and dance altogether.

Yeah, that's a problem. If we were like computers, then we could be replaced by them. But I don't think they can ever be self-aware. Simple machines are certainly not self-aware and I don't see how making them more complicated or elegant like an AI computer would change that. Even with a flock of birds, even though each bird follows simple rules, and the flock as a whole operates in an intelligent way, far more advanced than the individual, that doesn't mean that "a flock brain has emerged that is self-aware."

Wow. This is a cool thread!

Um, Doug, are you saying that a neuron firing in the brain obeys simple rules regarding the local neurons around it, like a bird in a flock, and that the whole brain is like the whole flock, and would have no self-awareness even though it acts intelligently, UNLESS there is an added element outside the material "meat computer" (as someone named it once[can't remember who] )".
    { Thanks Petitcroissant. Pretty cool, but I hope I don't get lost }

Joyce, are you calling me a birdbrain? Nobody ever calls me that, except maybe once, but I don't think that counts:

    Avian Translation

I’ve always wanted to speak
to the smaller birds, so
I’ve done a lot of weird whistling.

Sometimes a little birdie cocks her head
and tries to see if I’m a threat or a bird benevolent,
but I’m neither a mate nor predator, just
a conversationalist

So I whistle something which means
“give tomatoes to Owls, like Caesar.”

And she says, “Huh, what? And
for a Human you don’t look so bad
even though you have no feathers.
Why is it that you can’t fly?
It’s so easy.”

And I said, “Why is it that
you can’t speak and write novels.”

“Well, then,” it said, “have you written one lately?”

And I said, “Um, no…”

And it said in a way that I think it meant kindly that
I was a birdbrain.

Joyce, are you a bird or a little crisp and flaky roll?

No, what me call you a birdbrain? No, not unless your brain has feathers. Moi?
    Does not the crowd hear that I have come to the square to praise you, mon cher ami, but seems like Greek to me, and I have my loves in English and in dreams.
    I have come in feathers and lace to praise you, but you speak too soon when I am on a roll, my thoughts crisp, and methinks you stare at my body and think I'm flaky.
    If there'd be an audience of birds, I will throw them my rolls, if they would become stale and grainy. But grain is for beer to make.
    Share a beer with me before it is stale. Hark, be a lark if not a hawk. For
    I am on a roll

By the way, I like your poem.

Joyce,
I'm not sure if my brain has feathers. I've never actually seen it.

Joyce said, "I have come in feathers and lace to praise you..."
    Wow, that's super

I'd share a beer and drum roll with you anytime.