Ovidiu Cristinel, Stoica (2023) Does a computer think if no one is around to see it? [Preprint]

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Abstract

I show that a computer cannot have unambiguous thoughts, not even about a number. What we believe computers do is our own convention. It may seem objective because we anchor it in the user interface. But many other conventions are possible, and they yield different computations, equally valid according to the principles of Computer Science. I prove that the alternative computations equally happen when a single computation is carried out, and in principle they can be accessed. I exemplify this with a program that computes the result for a given input, and then decodes it into the results for all other possible inputs.

If thinking would be a computation, a computer would have different, possibly opposite thoughts, corresponding to many alternative computations it implements at the same time.

I show probabilistically that the human mind does not have this ambiguity. Therefore, even if the human mind can be simulated by a computer, it cannot be reduced to computation.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Ovidiu Cristinel, Stoica 0000-0002-2765-1562
Keywords:	Computational theory of mind; Artificial Intelligence; Philosophy of Computer Science
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computer Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
Depositing User:	Ovidiu Cristinel Stoica
Date Deposited:	12 Jul 2023 12:20
Last Modified:	12 Jul 2023 12:20
Item ID:	22304
Subjects:	Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Computation Specific Sciences > Computer Science Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science > Consciousness
Date:	26 June 2023
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/22304

Available Versions of this Item

• Does a computer think if no one is around to see it? (deposited 23 Jun 2023 12:18)
  • Does a computer think if no one is around to see it? (deposited 26 Jun 2023 12:54)
    • Does a computer think if no one is around to see it? (deposited 12 Jul 2023 12:20) [Currently Displayed]
      • Does a computer think if no one is around to see it? (deposited 23 Dec 2023 23:26)

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