pjeby comments on The Blue-Minimizing Robot - Less Wrong

162 Post author: Yvain 04 July 2011 10:26PM

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Comment author: JamesAndrix 04 July 2011 05:25:03PM 17 points [-]

I suspect Richard would say that the robot's goal is minimizing its perception of blue. That's the PCT perspective on the behavior of biological systems in such scenarios.

This 'minimization' goal would require a brain that is powerful enough to believe that lasers destroy or discolor what they hit.

If this post were read by blue aliens that thrive on laser energy, they'd wonder they we were so confused as to the purpose of a automatic baby feeder.

Comment author: pjeby 04 July 2011 06:34:28PM 5 points [-]

This 'minimization' goal would require a brain that is powerful enough to believe that lasers destroy or discolor what they hit.

From the PCT perspective, the goal of an E. coli bacterium swimming away from toxins and towards food is to keep its perceptions within certain ranges; this doesn't require a brain of any sort at all.

What requires a brain is for an outside observer to ascribe goals to a system. For example, we ascribe a thermostat's goal to be to keep the temperature in a certain range. This does not require that the thermostat itself be aware of this goal.