Ep. 21: Mind (Turing, et al)

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What is the mind? Can it be understood in purely in physical terms? Could a computer be truly intelligent? We introduce the philosophy of mind by discussing the following readings:

1. Alan Turing’s 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” (Read it in The Annotated Turing)

2. A chapter of Gilbert Ryle’s 1949 book The Concept of Mind called “Descartes’ Myth.”

3. Thomas Nagel’s 1974 essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” (Read it in the collection Mortal Questions)

4. John Searle’s Chinese Room argument, discussed in a 1980 piece, “Minds, Brains and Programs.” (Read it in the collection Philosophy of Mind: Contemporary Readings, eds. Timothy O'Connor and David Robb.)

5. Daniel C. Dennett’s 1988 article “Quining Qualia.” (Get it along with many of these other essays in Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, ed. David Chalmers)

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Running Time: 2 hrs, 20 min. Recorded: June 13, 2010. Participants: Mark, Wes, Seth, Marco Wise.

As a bonus, your purchase includes a high-bitrate mp3 of the song that concludes the episode, "No Mind" from Mark's album Mark Lint and the Fake Johnson Trio (1998)