Marvin Minsky on Consciousness

Marvin Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky

In this clip, Minsky discusses whether or not the existence of consciousness is sufficient grounds for rejecting physicalism. He argues against the intuitive notion of the directness and immediacy of conscious experience, as well as the idea that conscious agents have privileged epistemic access to the contents of their own minds. He believes that internal knowledge of one's own thoughts and external knowledge of the thoughts of others is a mere difference in degree, not a difference in type.

Furthermore, Minsky believes that the pre-scientific notion of "consciousness" as a singular unified phenomenon is simply mistaken, and that cognitive science is showing us that consciousness is much more complex and fractured than previously imagined.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Marvin Minksy
• Materialism
• Physicalism
• Philosophy of Mind
• Consciousness
• Artificial Intelligence
• Neurophilosophy
• Functionalism

[JAYDUBYAH29]

excellent video! thanks lenny.. love the closer to truth website - i'll be surprised if they let you keep this up very long though!

[LennyBound]

All of the others are still up, so we'll see what happens.

*crosses fingers*

[0Fear]

His argument is cyclical. He says that that our minds are the result of computation and one day AI will become conscious similarly, but he fails to realize that this wont happen without the interference a "qualia" in the first place. The result of computation doesn't have meaning. "Meaning" can only be applied after the fact with a codex. We see without codex. Plus he doesn't explain how we'll be able to tell when an AI becomes conscious when we can only assume other humans are.

[simplic10]

I always found the phenomenon of "confabulation" in people whose corpus callosum has been cut very revealing. To me it suggests that our first-person conscious experience isn't nearly as coherent as we subjectively feel it to be (words fail me in this subject matter).

Cool video, thanks.

[setnoset]

To back up my claim that physical determinism is a myth I will add not only the possibility of quantum determinism but the fact that recent theories of Physics leaves room for a lot of undeterminism, since many are based on principles of Quantum mechanics. a notable example is string theory.

[setnoset]

@0Fear I have to totally agree with you and also add something - the regress argument for mechanistic explanations.

Evidence require explanations. explanations require assumptions. assumptions require justifications. justifications require other assumptions. Ad Infinitum.

If we are able to describe the full physical system that means that alhough we have assumptions, we are able to maximising our understanding of the processes by our ability to determine events, given a system. this is a myth.

[OxyTintin]

The interviewer has one of the creepiest laughs I've heard in a while. Wtf is laughing at anyway? 0:56 1:00 1:44 2:24 2:42 4:32

[riemanngalois]

lots of gesticulating

[thomaskurian89]

Can he just stop moving his hands?

[Ontologistics]

@tnafguy

You are a Creationist. I am so happy that people like you dislike me, it just improves my credibility.



[astroboomboy]

@ElasticGiraffe He's not a behaviorist, he is closer to what is called nativist (a kind of Kantian approach to the mind as an entity with a priori knowledge of the world). Do you really understand what behaviorism is?

[hasenj]

@langengro Maybe this guy doesn't have read consciousness! i.e. what if he's a philosophical zombie? :P

[badger500]

@MrBtorb I don't agree at all; I think the interviewer's points are clear, well-expressed, and central to the mind-body problem. If only all interviewers were this cogent. Minsky's points approach but, to me, do not really answer satisfyingly the challenges of the hard problem of consciousness. (Of course, he only has a few minutes to try). It's a good attempt on both men's parts.

[badger500]

@shredftw That may be the case--though I doubt it on both count--but it does not strike me as apparent from the video; the interview is as cogent as can be in reporting the controversies regarding consciousness. In fact, as I call it, Minksy is the only one in this video who can be said to make some statements that appear to miss the point. (Don't get me wrong; I respect Minsky greatly).