Lycan and Searle Lycan, Searle, Term Paper

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Were William Lycan, a critic of Searle's standards, President of the World's Congress, would the judgement be any different, however? Despite his critique of Searle, Lycan's stress upon biology suggests that an awareness of one's own mental state is a matter of the physical capacity of human, higher-order perceptions, which Andrew does not seem to possess either, as his physical neurology is not constantly altering like a human. Lycan's problem with the Turning Test is its reliance upon the perceptions of the testing. Lycan suggests that then like any other perceptual or quasi-perceptual faculty, the internal attention mechanism is a mechanism and can break down. (Lycan, 1999)

There are problems with the Turning test that these two scientists do not even arise, because they are more of law rather than of neurology -- for example, how can the individual consciousness of the tester be the final authority of personhood, a judge and jury without any real appeal? Should the tester's credulousness or lack of skepticism, and the tendency of the tester to assume that the entity that things most like the tester is human be the final judgment of personhood? Is it not likely that the tester would mistake a robot for human, not because the robot was actually thinking, but because one set of responses struck the tester's faulty judgment as more or less human seeming, based upon subjective standards -- as in, this set of responses reminded me of my mother's way of thinking, therefore it must be the human and not the robotic and manufactured entity! Even if true AI is not feasible, humans, because of our own faulty and subjective wiring, might not be able to decide in a blind test, the true nature of consciousness and personhood either.

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Andrew, it might be suggested, might not be human, but as there is a reasonable doubt in the matter, it is more human to err on the side of personhood than against it. To judge personhood upon emotive capacity and creative choice is problematic, however. Are more emotional and more creative people more 'human' than less emotional and more rational people, or people who prefer routine to innovation? To take this standard to its logical conclusion might mean an autistic person is less human than a wild and frenzied, over-emotional horse or dog! While Andrew is created, too, all humans are created and dependant for their creation on other humans, and thus the source of the creation of those emotions cannot be a final determent. And to use intelligence and the ability to learn as the standard of 'rights' is also problematic, given the varied nature of human intelligence. Thus, to grand Andrew personhood might be the best or less of the alternate evil, to deny personhood and humanity to one who potentially possesses it, and to open up an even thornier ethical debate that could impact the world legal state of all humanity.

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