WHAT OUR BODIES DO

Conscious Machines by Marvin Minsky

We humans do not possess much consciousness. That is, we have very little natural ability to sense what happens within and outside ourselves.

In short, much of what is commonly attributed to consciousness is mythical — and this may in part be what has led people to think that the problem of consciousness is so very hard. My view is quite the opposite: that some machines are already potentially more conscious than are people, and that further enhancements would be relatively easy to make. However, this does not imply that those machines would thereby, automatically, become much more intelligent. This is because it is one thing to have access to data, but another thing to know how to make good use of it. Knowing how your pancreas works does not make you better at digesting your food. So consider now, to what extents are you aware? How much do you know about how you walk? It is interesting to tell someone about the basic form of biped locomotion: you move in such a way as to start falling, and then you extend your leg to stop that fall: most people are surprised at this, and seem to have which muscles are involved; indeed, but few people even know which muscles they possess. In short, we are not much aware of what our bodies do. We’re even less aware of what goes on inside our brains.