[mod.ai] Consciousness as bureaucracy

colonel@buffalo.CSNET ("Col. G. L. Sicherman") (09/29/86)

Ken Laws's analogy between Bureaucracy and Man--more precisely, Man's
Mind--has been anticipated by Marvin Minsky.  I do not have the reference;
I think it was a rather broad article in a general science journal.

As I recall, the theory that Minsky proposed lay somewhere between the
lay concept of self and the Zen concept.  It seemed to suggest that
consciousness is an illusion to itself, but a genuine and observable
phenomenon to an outside observer, characterizable with the metaphor
of bureaucracy.  Perhaps some Ailist reader can identify the article.

Emergent consciousness has always been a hope of A.I.  I side with
those who suggest that consciousness depends on contact with the world
... even though I know some professors who seem to be counter-examples!
 :-)