" I agree with you that AI in its current form appears to be not much more than sophistry "

I didn't say that. All I said was that the problem of knowing whether computers can be conscious is not a legitimate philosophical problem, as our computers do not appear to be conscious at all. It's no different from arguing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

" However, someone like Dennett, Franklin or Hofstadter would stop you right there and say that the ultimate goal of real AI (not the parlour tricks of novelty chat-bots like Alice) is to produce a machine-based intelligence "

Dennet is the guy who argues that consciousness does not exist, and the perception that we are conscious is just an illusion. He doesn't strike me as someone who knows much about intelligence - you can't understand what you don't have...

As to "machine-based intelligence", my computer calculates more square roots of twelve-digit numbers per second than I'm able to do in a year. Sounds pretty machine-based intelligent to me! Somehow I miss the profoundity of their remarks.

• Consciousness: Philosophy or Science or Neither? - harvey1 - May 15, 2003 - 00:33 UTC