Lawhead refers to the characters of R2D2 and C3PO from the Star Wars movies as e
ID: 803772 • Letter: L
Question
Lawhead refers to the characters of R2D2 and C3PO from the Star Wars movies as examples of what appear to be artificially intelligent creatures. Not only do R2D2 and C3PO exhibit typical computing skills such as he storage/retrieval of data and the rapid performance of complex calculations, but they also appear to have distinct personalities, to display emotions, and to be self-motivated (sometimes to the point of disobedience). Imagine that R2D2 and C3PO really exist exactly as they are portrayed in the Star War movies.
How would a functionalist like Jerry Fodor account for their apparently human like capabilities and behaviors?
Explanation / Answer
Functionalism that is based on the fact the mental states like pain, desires, belief are mainly depend on the functional role which implies that a particular mental state is result of its relationship with other mental states, various sensory inputs and the behavioral output. Because these mental states are defined by a functional role they can be realised on various forms like computers or machines as long as the computer is performing appropriate functions. Just like brain perform on a neural substrate calculations from inputs to behaviour as the output, the computer also performs similar calculations on an electric substrate that give outputs from the given inputs.These mental states are not restricted to a particular medium like human mind. A machine can also have similar mental states as like of human if it has realised the proper functional role in its cognitive system. This explains the human like capabilities and behaviors of the R2D2 and C3PO robots in the Star War movies
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