Thursday 3 January 2013

Are you nothing but a machine?





Are you just a machine?  

More particularly, is your mind just a machine - nothing but the workings of a biological computer?

Or are there some things that a mind can do, that no machine can?

Being 'about' something, and understanding and creating meaning, seem to be beyond the abilities of machines.

Minds know and perceive objects.   In contrast, words, sentences and symbols can only be about things in a derivative sort of way, in so far as they transmit or evoke a primary 'aboutness' in the mind of the beholder.
 

And physical things, such as electrical circuits, computer inputs and outputs, don't possess aboutness in any form. 

'Aboutness', together with qualitative experience (qualia) and free-will, are the Holy Trinity of exclusively mental activities that defy materialistic explanation.     Full article here.




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