I participated in a webcast of a public debate from the MIT Ray & Maria Stata Center this afternoon:

4:30-5:30pm
Public Debate
David Gelernter vs. Ray Kurzweil
Moderated by Rodney Brooks

Ray & Maria
Stata Center
rm 32-123, 32 Vassar Street
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139

Are we limited to building super-intelligent robotic ‘zombies’ or will it be possible and desirable for us to build conscious, creative, volitional, perhaps even ‘spritual’
machines?

You can simulate a rain storm but no one gets wet. — David Gelernter

We can simulate biological neuron function. We can assume we will be able to simulate neuron function of 100 trillion connections at some point in the near future. Consciousness is an emergent phenomenon, but how does it work? At what point does consciousness emerge?

We think with our brains and our bodies, we’ll have to simulate both. — David Gelernter

The philosophical elements of my nature enjoyed the acknowledgment of the philosophical element required to define nature.

There were a considerable number of dropouts in the live stream, but an archived version is available on the web now. I saw a friend of mine in line to ask a question though the time ran out before he could get to the microphone. (Sorry Chris!)

BTW: what research group solved the protein folding problem, as Kurzweil claimed?