Why new physics is needed to understand the mind

Abstract

There are many facets to human mentality. It may well be that some of these can be explained in terms of our present-day physical concepts (compare Schrödinger, 1958) and, moreover, are potentially amenable to computational simulation. The proponents of artificial intelligence (AI) would maintain that such a simulation is indeed possible – at least for a good many of those mental qualities that are basically involved in our intelligence. Furthermore, such a simulation could be put to use in enabling a robot to behave, in those particular respects, in the same kind of way as a human being might behave. The proponents of strong AI would maintain, moreover, that every mental quality can be emulated – and will eventually be superseded – by the actions of electronic computers. They would also maintain that such mere computational action must evoke the same kind of conscious experiences in a computer, or robot, as we experience ourselves.