timtyler comments on Bloggingheads: Robert Wright and Eliezer Yudkowsky - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Liron 07 August 2010 06:09AM

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Comment author: timtyler 09 August 2010 06:51:25AM *  0 points [-]

Re: "First you say that defining minds is simple, and now you're pointing back to your own brain's inbuilt definition in order to support that claim... "

I am talking about a system with sensory input, motor output and memory/processing. Like in this diagram:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/SOCyberntics.png

That is nothing specifically to do with human brains - it applies equally well to the "brain" of a washing machine.

Such a description is relatively simple. It could be presented to Martians in a manner so that they could understand it without access to any human brains.

Comment author: pjeby 09 August 2010 05:09:21PM 1 point [-]

it applies equally well to the "brain" of a washing machine.

That diagram also applies equally well to a thermostat, as I mentioned in a great-great-grandparent comment above.