Really?
Sure.
Let's start simply: what if the program uses a source of randomness (say, a beta detector placed next to a bowl of table salt)? It's decisions are effectively random.
It's direction is randomly dictated. They're not decisions. There was no reflection or judgement on the part of the computer. It just did what it was told to do, in this case by a particle detector.
Now, let's get more complex: what if the program uses neural nets and deep learning techniques, so that it increases its knowledge as time goes on without any intervention from the programmer? Such systems, for example, can be started up completely "blank" and learn to perform a task through trial and error.
It wouldn't set about 'learning' (I can't anthropomorphize like that w/o the quoties) any task unless directed to do so. It's just more computation. The machine's next iteration is dictated by probable outcomes based on past outcomes, as it's directed to do by its program.
Getting improved results by repeated trial and error is the opposite of reasoning to a solution. The machine will never reason. There's no conceptualization happening. There's no understanding of anything taking place.
Can you define "mind" and "will" for us, sufficiently accurately as to allows us to understand why it's impossible for a computer to possess those things?
Can you explain how your brain differs from a computer?
Not really. People have argued over these terms for a long long time now. Doubt I'll be the guy to provide the definitive answer.
My physical brain? No. My mind? Yes. It is manifest, as evidenced by conscious thought, which may be predicated on the existence of a brain but it's not strictly equivalent. If you shoot the orchestra then you have stopped the symphony, but have you eradicated the symphony? I'm not quite hocus pocus lava lamp enough to say we all share in a universal consciousness but, as intellects we possess common traits unique to living beings. Again, the ability to reason and to reason and act through one's own agency.
So in b4 Frankenstein's creation. I don't know if you can build a man on a workbench. I just have a real hard time going all in on materialism. Like the dude said: Hey, nothing is in this famous 'mind' of yours which is not first in the senses. And the other dude was all: Except the mind itself.
