[traviskicks]

Two excerpts that deal with your point: In fact, it might be the case that the very predictability of a computer restricts it's ability to process the more abstract concepts that we Humans juggle daily. So a computer that needs to be told what to do, (in a specific manner via programming etc..) will be incapable, by definition, of abstract thought, Volition, and human type Consciousness, no matter how powerful it may be. And it will be impossible to construct a computer capable of fully simulating the abstract thinkings of a human being, without it being: 1. unpredictable 2. conscious in a human sense. 3. possessing Volition. From this analysis we see Zombies are impossible. This concept is reminiscent of the famous, Heisenberg 'uncertainty principal' regarding small particles; The more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa. (26) As computers advance to the point where they are capable of human like functions they will becoming increasingly harder to control. It puts a bit of a limit on the power of conventional computing (as shown by the second Chart). Our discussions about predictability were very important in our analysis of computers, but have been since been somewhat ignored. Is this a mistake? The nature of randomness is as mysterious as Consciousness, Free Will, and God, and just as neglected by scientific study. (60), (61) Many of these mysterious entities seem correlated and linked together. Predetermination is a much simpler and logical concept to accept then any attained by delving into the instable nature of randomness. Is all randomness caused by Free Will, or elements thereof? In other words, might the same physical interactions that give rise to Consciousness, give rise to randomness? btw, an interesting book on this sort of thing is Wolfrom's 'A New Kind of Science'.

[Reeses]

So a computer that needs to be told what to do, (in a specific manner via programming etc..) will be incapable, by definition, of abstract thought, Volition, and human type Consciousness, no matter how powerful it may be.

I used to think computers were becoming a type of life form but now that I've studied electronics and how clocked logic works it's not so mysterious. It's nothing more than signals flipping switches on and off. With enough switches it can do a convincing job of simulating thought, but it is still just a simulation and is not alive. 30 years from now computers will simulate thought so well we’ll have a hard time believing they are not conscious, but still they never will be alive in their current digital form no matter how powerful. With super-human computer help it may be possible to build machines that are alive, but they won’t be binary based machines.