Conscious AI Meetup: Computationalist Metaphysics
We would like to welcome you to another event of the Salon of the California Institute of Machine Consciousness!
Cognitive science rests on the notion of mind as machine. This is intuitive to many computer scientists, because they have a different, highly abstract notion of 'machine', which also encompasses things as diverse as photons, cells, theorem provers, and the physical universe itself. Computationalist functionalism is both an epistemological position ('what can we know about reality, and what is the nature of knowledge') and a metaphysical one ('what is a model?', 'what is reality?', 'how are model and reality related').
If we want to answer questions like: Do minds depend on a specific substrate? Under which conditions are biological systems equivalent to artificial ones? How is consciousness realized in nature? What is consciousness?, we need to understand the underlying metaphysics.
Our session will consist of a presentation by Andrés Campero and Joscha Bach, followed by an open discussion. Topics will likely include:
What is computation? How does it relate to mathematics and minds?
Is computation sufficient to explain consciousness and physical reality?
Are there alternatives to computation?
What does functionalism imply?
Can we construct working alternatives to functionalist metaphysics?
We are looking forward to connecting with you!
Attendance is free; we appreciate if you bring non-alcoholic drinks and some snacks.