Bishop, Mark (J. M.). 2004. Mechanical bodies; mythical minds. In: Leslie Samuel Smith; Amir Hussain and Igor Aleksander, eds. Brain Inspired Cognitive Systems. Scotland: University of Stirling CD Rom. ISBN 978-1857691993 [Book Section]

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Abstract or Description

A cursory examination of the history of Artificial Intelligence, AI, serves to highlight several strong claims from its researchers, especially in relation to the populist form of computationalism that holds, ‘any suitably programmed computer will instantiate genuine conscious mental states purely in virtue of carrying out a specific series of computations’.
The argument to be presented in this paper develops ideas first outlined in Hilary Putnam’s 1988 monograph, “Representation & Reality”, then developed by the author in, “Dancing with Pixies”, (2002a) and “Counterfactuals Cannot Count”, (2002b).
This work further extends these ideas into a novel thesis against computationalism which, if correct, has important implications for Cognitive Science; both with respect to the prospect of ever developing a computationally instantiated consciousness and more generally for any computational, (purely-functional), explanation of mind.

Item Type:	Book Section
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Computing
Dates:	Date Event 2004 Published
Item ID:	15127
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2015 11:02
Last Modified:	20 Jun 2017 09:39
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/15127

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