---
abstract: 'Eliminative functionalism is the view that mental attributes, of humans and other machines, consist ultimately in behavioural abilities or dispositions. Hence, ‘Strong AI’: if a machine consistently acts as if it were fully conscious, then conscious it is. From these assumptions, optimistic futurists have derived a variety of remarkable visions of our ‘post-human’ future; from widely-recognised ‘robot rights’ to ‘mind uploading’, immortality, ‘apotheosis’ and beyond. It is argued here, however, that eliminative functionalism is false; for at least on our present knowledge, the subjectively qualitative characteristics of conscious experience are neither deducible from, nor logically required to generate, the performance of any sort of overtly ‘intelligent’, or indeed, characteristically human behaviour. Thus, a machine could easily be designed to report awareness of phenomenal qualities, without necessarily possessing them; and Alan Turing’s ‘Imitation Game’ test for artificial thinking is unable to determine whether or not a machine is sentient. An alternative test is proposed, in which the machine is asked phenomenological questions under conditions designed to detect any form of cheating—whilst also, potentially revealing evidence for the occurrence of genuine qualitative experience.'
altloc: []
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: ~
conference: ~
confloc: ~
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
- family: Clifton
given: Andrew
honourific: ''
lineage: ''
date: 2003
date_type: published
datestamp: 2004-03-10
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/34/83
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name: []
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 3483
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png;/3483/1/Introspection_game.pdf
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: ~
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: 'Turing test, artificial intelligence, strong AI, functionalism, extropianism, post-humanism, consciousness, qualia'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:29
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: ~
pubdom: FALSE
publication: ~
publisher: ~
refereed: FALSE
referencetext: |-
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press
Averill, E. W. & Keating, B. (1981) ‘Does interactionism violate a law of classical physics?’ Mind 90:102-7.
Beck, F. and Eccles, J. C. (1992) “Quantum aspects of brain activity and the role of consciousness.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 89(23): 11357–11361.
Beloff, J. (1994a) “Minds and machines: a radical dualist perspective.” Journal of Consciousness Studies Vol 1 No. 1 pp. 32–37
Beloff, J. (1994b) “The mind brain problem.” Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 8 No 4.
Block, N. (1979) ‘Troubles with Functionalism.’ In P. French, T. Uehling, and H. Wettstein eds. Perception and Cognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Block, N. (1981) Psychologism and behaviorism. Philosophical Review 90:5-43
Boden, M., ed. (1980) The Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bridgman, P. W. (1927) The Logic of Modern Physics. New York: Macmillan
Brink, D. O. (1989) Moral Realism and the Foundations of Ethics. Cambridge University Press.
Broderick, D. (1999) The Last Mortal Generation. Sydney: New Holland/Striek
Broderick, D. (2001) The Spike: How Our Lives are being Transformed by Rapidly Advancing Technologies. New York: Forge.
Brooks, R. A. (2003) Flesh and Machines. Vintage Books
Chalmers, D. (1996a) The Conscious Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chalmers, D. J. (1996b) ‘Minds, machines, and mathematics.’ Psyche 2:11-20.
Chomsky, N. (1959) ‘Review of Verbal Behavior by B. F. Skinner.’ Language 35: 26-58.
Churchland, P. M. (1981). ‘Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes.’ Journal of Philosophy 78: 67-90.
Churchland, P. M. (1984) Matter and Consciousness. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press
Churchland P. M. (1996) The Engine of Reason, The Seat of the Soul: A Philosophical Journey into the Brain. MIT Press.
Churchland P. M. and Churchland P. S. (1998) On the Contrary: Critical Essays, 1987-1997. MIT Press
Churchland P. S. (1986) Neurophilosophy: Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Brain. MIT Press
Churchland P. S. (2002) Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy. MIT Press
Clark, A. (1997) Being there: putting brain, body and world together again. MIT Press
Clark, A. (2000) Mindware: An introduction to the philosophy of cognitive science.
Oxford University Press.
Clifton, A. (2004) [a] An empirical case against materialism. Unpublished MS.
Clifton, A. (2004) [b] Res cogitans. Unpublished MS.
Clifton, A. (2004) [c] The hazards of silicon heaven. Unpublished MS.
Cotterill, R. (1989). No Ghost in the Machine: Modern Science and the Brain, the Mind and the Soul. London: Heinemann.
Cotterill, R. (1997). On the mechanism of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 4(3), 231-247.
Dennett, D. (1987) The Intentional Stance. MIT Press.
Dennett, D (1988) Quining Qualia. in A. Marcel and E. Bisiach, eds, Consciousness in Modern Science, Oxford University Press 1988.
Dennett (1997) ‘Consciousness in human and robot minds’, In Ito, Masao, Miyashita, Yasushi and Rolls, Edmund T. Cognition, Computation, and Consciousness. Oxford University Press
Dery, M (1996) Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century. Grove Press.
Eccles, J. C. (1986) “Do mental events cause neural events analogously to the probability field of quantum mechanics?” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B227: 411–28.
Elton, M (1997) ‘'Robots and Rights: The Ethical Demands of Artificial Agents’, Ends and Means, Journal of the Aberdeen Centre for Philosophy, Technology and Society, New Series, 2: 19-23
Elton M (2000) ‘Should Vegetarians Play Video Games?’, Philosophical Papers 29(1) 21-42
Feyerabend, P. (1963a) ‘Mental Events and the Brain’ Journal of Philosophy 60: 295-296.
Feyerabend, P. (1963b) ‘Materialism and the Mind Body/Problem’ The Review of Metaphysics 17:49-66.
Fodor, J. (1975) The Language of Thought. New York: Crowell.
Fodor, J. (1980) ‘Methodological solipsism considered as a research strategy in cognitive science.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3:63-73.
Fodor, J. (1981) ‘The Mind Body Problem.’ Scientific American 244:1:114-123
Fodor, J. (1990) A Theory of Content and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Friedman, M (1999) Reconsidering Logical Positivism Cambridge University Press.
Furse, E (1995) ‘A theology of robots’, unpublished ms. available online at:
www.comp.glam.ac.uk/pages/staff/efurse/Theology-of-Robots/A-Theology-of-Robots.html
Grand, S (2001) Creation: Life and How to Make It. Harvard University Press
Gregory R. (1987) ‘In defence of AI: a reply to Searle.’ In C. Blakemore and S. Greenfield Eds., (1987) Mindwaves. Blackwell.
Grush, R. & Churchland, P. (1995) ‘Gaps in Penrose’s toiling.’ In T. Metzinger, ed. Conscious Experience. Ferdinand Schoningh.
Hadley, R. F. (1987). Godel, Lucas, and mechanical models of mind. Computational Intelligence 3:57-63.
Harman, G (1977) The Nature of Morality. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Harman, G (1999) ‘Wide Functionalism’ in: Reasoning, Meaning, and Mind. Clarendon Press.
Hofstadter, D. R. (1979) Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books
Hofstadter, D. R. and Dennett, D. C. Eds. (1981) The Mind’s I. Bantam Books
Holst, G. (2001) ‘Should Robots be Slaves? Is it too late to consider robot rights?’ unpublished ms. available online at: www.sfu.ca/~gholst/RobotSlaves/robotslaves.html
Jackson, F. (1982) ‘Epiphenomenal qualia.’ Philosophical Quarterly 32:127-136
Johnson-Laird, P (1987) ‘How could consciousness arise from computations in the brain.’ In C. Blakemore and S. Greenfield Eds., (1987) Mindwaves. Blackwell.
Johnson-Laird, P (1988) The Computer and the Mind. Fontana
Kurzweill, (1999) The Age of Spiritual Machines. Penguin Books.
Lewis, D. (1980) ‘Mad Pain and Martian Pain.’ in N. Block, ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, Vol. I. Harvard University Press
Libet, B. (1994) A testable theory of mind-brain interaction. Journal of Consciousness Studies 1:119-26.
Lowe, E. J. (1992) The problem of psychophysical causation. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 70:263-76.
Lowe, E. J. (1993) The causal autonomy of the mental. Mind 102:629-44.
Lucas, J. R. (1996) ‘Mind, machines and Gödel’ Philosophy, 36, 112-27
Lucas, J. R. (1996) ‘Mind, machines and Gödel: A retrospect.’ In P. Millican & A. Clark, eds. Machines and Thought. Oxford University Press.
Lycan, W. (1987) Consciousness Cambridge MIT Press
Lycan, W. (1996) Consciousness and Experience. MIT Press
Mackie, J. L. (1977) Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books
Masson, J. M. and McCarthy, S. (1996) When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals. Dell Publishing Company.
McCarthy (1995) ‘What has AI in Common with Philosophy?’ Proceedings of the 14th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 2 pp. 2041-2044
McDermott, D. (2001) Mind and Mechanism. MIT Press.
McNally, P., & Inayatullah, S. (1988). ‘Rights of Robots.’ Futures, 20(2), 119-136.
Misak, C. J. (1995) Verificationism: Its History and Prospects. Routledge
Moor, J.H. (1976) ‘An Analysis of the Turing test’, Philosophical Studies 30, 249–257.
Moor, J.H. (1987) ‘Turing Test’ in S.C. Shapiro, ed., Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence, New York: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 1126–1130.
Moor, J.H. (2000), ‘Turing Test’, in A. Ralston, E.D. Reilly, D. Hemmendinger, eds., Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 4th edition, London: Nature Publishing Group, pp. 1801–1802.
Moor, J.H. (2001) ‘The Status and Future of the Turing Test’ Minds and Machines 11: 77–93
Moravec, H. (1990) Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence. Harvard University Press.
Moravec, H. (2000) Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind. Oxford University Press
Murphy, J. (1990) Pragmatism from Pierce to Davidson. Westview Press.
Paul, G. S. and Cox, E. (1996) Beyond Humanity: Cyberevolution and Future Minds. Charles River Media
Penrose, R. (1989) The Emperor’s New Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Penrose, R. (1994) Shadows of the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Pierce, C. (1878) ‘How to Make Our Ideas Clear’ Popular Science Monthly 12: 286-302.
Pojman, L. P. (1994) Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong. (2nd edition) Wadsworth Publishing.
Polanyi, M. (1958) Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Polanyi, M. (1966) The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday, New York, 1966
Preston, J and Bishop, M. Eds (2002) Views into the Chinese Room: New Essays on Searle and Artificial Intelligence. Oxford University Press
Putnam, H. (1962), "What Theories are Not", in E. Nagel, P. Suppes and A. Tarski (eds.), Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science, Stanford, Stanford University Press
Putnam, Hilary, (1975), ‘Explanation and Reference.’ in Mind, Language, and Reality. Philosophical Papers, Vol. II. Cambridge University Press
Putnam, Hilary, (1975), ‘The Meaning of Meaning.’ in Mind, Language, and Reality. Philosophical Papers, Vol. II. Cambridge University Press
Quine (1951) ‘Two Dogmas of Empiricism’ Philosophical Review, 60(1): 20-43
Rey, G. (1980) ‘Functionalism and the Emotions.’ in A. Rorty, ed., Explaining Emotions Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.
Rey, G. (1996) ‘Towards a Projectivist Account of Conscious Experience.’ in T. Metzinger, ed., Conscious Experience. Paderhorn: Ferdinand-Schoningh
Rey, G. (1997a) Contemporary Philosophy of Mind: A Contentiously Classical Approach. Blackwell.
Rey, G. (1997b) ‘A Question About Consciousness.’ in, ed. by N. Block, O. Flanagan, and G. Guzeldere, eds., The Nature of Consciousness. MIT Press.
Rorty, R (1965) ‘Mind-body Identity, Privacy and Categories.’ The Review of Metaphysics 19:24-54
Rorty, R (1970) ‘In Defense of Eliminative Materialism.’ The Review of Metaphysics 24:112-121
Rorty R. (1972) ‘Functionalism, Machines, and Incorrigibility’ Journal of Philosophy, 69: 203-220
Rorty, R (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton University Press.
Ryle, Gilbert. (1949) The Concept of Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Reichenbach H. (1953) ‘The Verifiability Theory of Meaning’ in H. Feigl and M. Brodbeck eds., Readings in the Philosophy of Science. Appleton-Century-Crofts
Sayre McCord, G., ed. (1988) Essays on Moral Realism. Cornell University Press
Schlick M (1959) ‘The Turning Point in Philosophy’ in Ayer A. J. (ed.) Logical Positivism. Free Press.
Searle, J. (1980) ‘Minds, brains and Programs.’ Behavioural and Brain Sciences 3: 417-24
Searle, J. (1984) Minds, Brains and Science. Harvard University Press
Searle, J. (1992) Rediscovering the Mind. Harvard University Press
Searle, J. (1997) The Mystery of Consciousness. New York, New York Review Press
Sellars, W. (1956) Empiricism and the philosophy of mind. In H. Feigl and M Scriven, eds., The Foundations of Science and Concept of Psychology and Psychoanalysis. University of Minnesota Press
Shook, J. ed., (2000) The Chicago School of Pragmatism. Thoemmes Press. 4 Volumes.
Skinner, B. F. (1953) Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan
Sloman, A. (1978) The Computer Revolution In Philosophy: Philosophy, science and models of mind. Harvester Press.
Sloman, A (2000) ‘Architectural Requirements for Human-like Agents Both Natural and Artificial (What sorts of machines can love?)’ In: K. Dautenhahn, Ed., Human Cognition And Social Agent Technology. John Benjamins Publishing
Sloman, A and Croucher, M (1981) ‘Why robots will have emotions.’ Proceedings IJCAI 1981, Vancouver.
Skinner, B. F. (1953) Science and Human Behavior. New York: Macmillan.
Stevenson, C. L. (1937) ‘The emotive meaning of ethical terms.’ Mind, 46, 14-31.
Stevenson, C. L. (1944). Ethics and language. Hew Haven, CN: Yale University Press
Taylor J. (1995) ‘Towards the Ultimate Intelligent Machine.’ Presidential Address, World Congress on Neural Networks, Washington DC, July 17-21.
Taylor J. (1999) The Race for Consciousness. MIT Press
Tipler, F. J (1995) The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead. London: Macmillan
Turing, A. (1950) Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind 59: 443-460.
Vinge, V. (1993) ‘The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era’, Whole Earth Review, No. 81 pp. 88ff.
Watson, J. B. (1912) Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review 20: 158-177.
Williams, B. (1973) ‘Morality and the Emotions.’ In: Problems of the Self. Cambridge University Press.
Williams, B. (1982) Moral Luck : Philosophical Papers 1973-1980. Cambridge University Press
Williams, B. (1986) Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Harvard University Press
Wittgenstein, L. (1953) Philosophical Investigations. Trans. G. E. M. Anscombe. New York: Macmillan
Yudkowsky E. (2001) ‘The Singularitarian Principles (Extended Version’
sysopmind.com/sing/principles.ext.html
Yudkowsky, Eliezer S. (2003) Levels Of Organization In General Intelligence, in Ben Goertzel and Cassio Pennachin, eds. Real AI: New Approaches to Artificial General Intelligence
Zuriff, G. E. (1985) Behaviorism: A Conceptual Reconstruction. Columbia University Press
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 12
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:51:13
subjects:
- phil-mind
- comp-sci-art-intel
succeeds: 3477
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: 'The introspection game - or, does the Tin Man have a heart?'
type: preprint
userid: 4684
volume: ~