Parse as "they you do" for those who don't accept a `you.'
> What does "true" mean here (or anywhere)? If a meme is very
> ingrained and affects many behaviours, and it's use is not
> generally detrimental in practical terms, why should we worry
> whether it's "true"? Surely what matters is, it's functional.
<Black people are inherently inferior to whites.>
What were you saying about memes without reality backing that are strong
motivators/activators in a given memesphere? Thinking <I'm conscious>
can be almost as destructive in a more abstract sense, because while it
doesn't drive you to physical harm against others, it causes you to
overrate your own memetic importance and downplay observations which
would contradict it.
> >If I write a program that insists
> >that its conscious, how are you going to prove to /it/, not
> >necessarily to an observer but to /it/ that its not?
>
> If I really don't believe it's conscious, why would I want to
> prove anything to it? This argument would only make sense
> to someone who believed it *was* conscious.
I don't believe /you're/ conscious (nor I, for that matter). Why am I
continuing to parley on the subject with you?
> I do. The 200 line "conversational simulator" I wrote years
> ago will assert that it's conscious, but not even you will
> believe it. And that's the requirement: that it convinces
> someone. And even then, it has only met the requirement
> for the people it convinces. How are you (in what you take
> to be a more plausible case) going to convince the
> sceptics?
How are you going to convince me that you're conscious?
--
Alexander Williams{thantos@alf.dec.com/zander@photobooks.com}
The Mekton is a powerful tool, both physically and emotionally.
There is something that happens to an enemy when he sees his home
and family stepped on by a hundred ton metal man. -- Arkon Verian
====================================================================
Of all the weapons of the Empire, the greatest and most respected
were the Metal Knights. These Knights had served the leaders of the
Bendar for Generations, righting wrongs and bringing fear to the
Empire's Enemies. It is said that these metal giants were shaped
like men so that the alien servants of Evil would know that it was
Man who defeated them.
-- Scribings from the Murian Archives