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How teaching molecules to think is revealing what a 'mind' is

68 points by pella

by dust42

4 subcomments

Interesting stuff but it hurts so much that the writer has the common misconception of pavlov's dog doing a circus trick. Sure the dog also consciously understands the connection between bell and food. But the physiological reaction of the saliva flowing is not a conscious decision of the dog. Circus tricks with animals existed long before Pavlov. The key discovery is that there is a physiological reaction which cannot be suppressed anymore consciously. That's why PTSD is such a bitch to be treated: even with the stimulus gone, the physiological reaction remains.
That said, the article is still worth a read.

by aeonque

2 subcomments

Seems to me we’re ignoring history: 1. Prescott Lecky destroyed the validity of Pavlov’s experiments with his paper on Self Consistency. 2. Macys conference in 1960s converged on the idea of systems theory and cybernetics; cause and effect is for elementary school - self organization is for the adults. 3. Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela (Autopoesis) are rolling in their graves.
It’s not a new discovery if something better has already been in use for 50+ years.
Am I missing something here?

by oersted

1 subcomments

Blood Music by Greg Bear
Quite a special scifi novel that starts like this. Quite grounded at the beginning, but it then evolves into body horror and later becomes quite abstract.

by pella

0 subcomment

by patcon

0 subcomment

by shevy-java

2 subcomments

Molecules do not "think" though. It's not just the title - the whole article seems to have been written by AI.

by contravariant

0 subcomment

So they've taken causality, emergence and consciousness and combined them into one simple to measure number? And now they're making philosophical statements about the implications.
You know what, fine, be that way if you must.

by throwaway27448

4 subcomments

> Selves are more technically defined by biologists and neuroscientists as “agents”
Someone shoot me please

by phyzome

0 subcomment

Haha, every time IIT comes up, I remember someone pointing out that it would conclude that hash functions are conscious.

by bookofjoe

0 subcomment

by juan-j-garcia

0 subcomment

Scientists have managed to create chemical reaction networks that can 'learn' in a similar way to a simple artificial intelligence (neural networks). The key: if you mix the right molecules, they can 'classify' images or chemical signals from their environment. They aren't thinking consciously, but they are processing information intelligently

by lutusp

1 subcomments

Readers should be aware the New Scientist regularly publishes articles that ... aren't remotely scientific. In this case, one clue is the presence of the word "mind," which, notwithstanding its colorful history, isn't accepted as a scientific topic.
The reason? The mind is not part of nature, and scientific theories must refer to some aspect of the natural world. If we were to accept the mind as science, then in fairness we would have to accept religion, philosophy and similar non-corporeal entities as science. So far we've resisted efforts to do that.
Some may object that psychology studies the mind, and experimental psychology is widely accepted as science. That's true -- there's plenty of science in psychology, some of it very good. But the many scientists in psychology study something that cannot itself be regarded as a basis for scientific theory.
This means psychology can do science, but it cannot be science. It's the same with astrology, a favorite undergraduate science topic by students learning statistical methods. But only the seriously confused will mistake an astrology study, however well-designed, for proof that astrology is a scientific theory.
People have the right to use the word "science" any way they please. So the only reality check is an educated observer. The fact that New Scientist has the title it does, and publishes the articles it does, stands as proof that there aren't nearly enough educated observers.