Computationalism

  • computational theory of mind
  • mind is an information processing system - cognition and consciousness are forms of computation
    • the system "runs on" neural activity in the brain (and the connections made - connectionism?)
  • various random thoughts from Josha Bach:
    • Turing test is a test if people they are generally intelligent enough to understand themselves to pass the Turing test
    • children learn that they might do something they do not want to do - to do it they have to model themselves in the world (so they have to run artificial simulations)
    • general intelligence is being able to create generalizations (models) from patterns - some of them are so complex that the thing needs to be able to model itself in the environment (emergent self awareness)
    • mind is creating both the universe and the (story of) self - based on the inputs it's receiving (from retina for example) - you are the machine that thinks it's you
Connectionism
  • tensions with computationalism
    • connectionism models at "low-level" (neurons), where computationalism models at "symbolic level"
    • connectionism focused on learning from stimuli (back-propagation in neural networks), where computationalism focuses on learning as "elaborating possibilities through symbolic processing"
Szymon Kaliski © 2021
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