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.which strike some philosophers as deep and disturbing challenges toThere, then, is a fairly major disagreement.Who is right? I cannottheir complacency, have always struck me as great labors wasted inhope to refute the opposing tradition in the short compass of a chap-trying to break down an unlocked door.ter, but I will provide two different persuasions on behalf of my side: II part company with these others because although they might will show what perplexities Fodor, Dretske, et al.entangle them-agree with me (and Millikan) about what one should say in the case of selves in by clinging to their intuition, and I will provide a littlethe transported two-bitser, they say that we human beings are not thought experiment to motivate, if not substantiate, my rival view.just fancier, more sosphisticated two-bitsers.When we say that we go First the thought experiment.into the state of believing that we are perceiving a US quarter (orsome genuine water as opposed to XYZ, or a genuine twinge ofDesigning a Robotarthritis) this is no metaphor, no mere manner of speaking.A parallelexample will sharpen the disagreement.Suppose you decided, for whatever reasons, that you wanted to ex-Suppose some human being, Jones, looks out the window and perience life in the twenty-fifth century, and suppose that the onlythereupon goes into the state of thinking he sees a horse.There may known way of keeping your body alive that long required it to beor may not be a horse out there for him to see, but the fact that he is in placed in a hibernation device of sorts, where it would rest, slowedthe mental state of thinking he sees a horse is not just a matter of down and comatose, for as long as you liked.You could arrange to296The Intentional StanceEvolution, Error, and Intentionality297climb into the support capsule, be put to sleep, and then automati-With so much to be done, and done fast, you had best rely whenevercally awakened and released in 2401.This is a time-honored science-you can on economies: give your robot no more discriminatory prow-fiction theme, of course.ess than it will probably need in order to distinguish what needsDesigning the capsule itself is not your only engineering problem,distinguishing in its world.for the capsule must be protected and supplied with the requisiteYour task will be made much more difficult by the fact that youenergy (for refrigeration or whatever) for over four hundred years.cannot count on your robot being the only such robot around withYou will not be able to count on your children and grandchildren forsuch a mission.If your whim catches on, your robot may find itselfthis stewardship, of course, for they will be long dead before the yearcompeting with others (and with your human descendents) for lim-2401, and you cannot presume that your more distant descendants, ifited supplies of energy, fresh water, lubricants, and the like.It wouldany, will take a lively interest in your well-being.So you must designno doubt be wise to design it with enough sophistication in its controla supersystem to protect your capsule and to provide the energy itsystem to permit it to calculate the benefits and risks of cooperatingneeds for four hundred years.with other robots, or of forming alliances for mutual benefit.(AnyHere there are two basic strategies you might follow.On one, yousuch calculation must be a "quick and dirty" approximation, arbitrar-should find the ideal location, as best you can foresee, for a fixedily truncated.See Dennett, forthcoming e.)installation that will be well supplied with water, sunlight, and what-The result of this design project would be a robot capable of exhib-ever else your capsule (and the supersystem itself) will need for theiting self-control, since you must cede fine-grained real-time control2duration.The main drawback to such an installation or "plant" is thatto your artifact once you put yourself to sleep.As such it will beit cannot be moved if harm comes its way if, say, someone decidescapable of deriving its own subsidiary goals from its assessment of itsto build a freeway right where it is located.The second alternative iscurrent state and the import of that state for its ultimate goal (which ismuch more sophisticated, but avoids this drawback: design a mobileto preserve you).These secondary goals may take it far afield onfacility to house your capsule along with the requisite sensors andcentury-long projects, some of which may be ill advised, in spite ofearly-warning devices so that it can move out of harm's way and seekyour best efforts.Your robot may embark on actions antithetical toout new energy sources as it needs them.In short, build a giant robotyour purposes, even suicidal, having been convinced by anotherand install the capsule (with you inside) in it.robot, perhaps, to subordinate its own life mission to some other.These two basic strategies are obviously copied from nature: theyBut still, according to Fodor et al., this robot would have no originalcorrespond roughly to the division between plants and animals.Sinceintentionality at all, but only the intentionality it derives from itsthe latter, more sophisticated strategy better fits my purposes, weartifactual role as your protector.Its simulacrum of mental statesshall suppose that you decide to build a robot to house your capsule.would be just that not real deciding and seeing and wonderingYou should try to design it so that above all else it "chooses" actionsand planning, but only as if deciding and seeing and wondering anddesigned to further your best interests, of course."Bad" moves andplanning."wrong" turns are those that will tend to incapacitate it for the role ofWe should pause, for a moment, to make sure we understand whatprotecting you until 2401 which is its sole raison d'etre.This is clearlythis claim encompasses [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]