gleam
Really Really Experienced
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2001
- Posts
- 373
That teleporter thread has got me on a pohilisophy kick.
Dan Dennet's Wine Tasting Machine:
Pretend that we invent a machine for "tasting" wine. The machine in question has a funnel that we pour the wine through, at which point the machine will do its thing and eventually output a response (either through a digital readout, or synthetic voice or whatever) describing how the wine tastes. So, for example, we feed it a certian vintage and it ouptuts something like "A flamboyant and velvety Pinot, though lacking in stamina". Note that the machine, at this point in the game, doesn't actually give any value judgements - it doesn't venture an opinion as to whether the wine is GOOD or not - it just describs the wine objectively.
Let's say, furthermore, that the machine was really good at what it did. 99 time out of 100, the response it gives is very close to what an expert wine taster would give.
Is that machine *really* tasting the wine?
Dan Dennet's Wine Tasting Machine:
Pretend that we invent a machine for "tasting" wine. The machine in question has a funnel that we pour the wine through, at which point the machine will do its thing and eventually output a response (either through a digital readout, or synthetic voice or whatever) describing how the wine tastes. So, for example, we feed it a certian vintage and it ouptuts something like "A flamboyant and velvety Pinot, though lacking in stamina". Note that the machine, at this point in the game, doesn't actually give any value judgements - it doesn't venture an opinion as to whether the wine is GOOD or not - it just describs the wine objectively.
Let's say, furthermore, that the machine was really good at what it did. 99 time out of 100, the response it gives is very close to what an expert wine taster would give.
Is that machine *really* tasting the wine?
