Roger Penrose’s Argument Against Though Computation

Quantum Mechanics Doesn’t Cover It All

• Penrose believes that if recreating human thought is even possible then laws of physics, especially quantum mechanics must be rewritten

• We must account for what Penrose calls “quantum gravity”

Quantum Gravity

• Most physicists do not believe that quantum theory needs to change when it is united with general relativity

• They argue that on such a small scale the effects of quantum gravity is totally insignificant

• Penrose disagrees and feels that Einstein’s space-time theory effects quantum mechanics

(Penrose “Emperor’s New Mind” 348 – 349)

Penrose and His Three Worlds

• These three worlds make up our world

• The Physical world can be expressed in terms of mathematics

• The Mental world possesses our consciousness

• The Platonic world only encompasses a small portion of the Physical world

(Penrose “The Large” 97 – 98)

Strong Artificial Intelligence

• Claim that some forms of artificial intelligence can reason and solve problems. Strong-AI states that it is possible for machines to become self-aware, however they may or may-not exhibit human-like thought processes.

• John Searle shares this belief. He uses his Chinese room example to discredit this through the failure to discredit the Turing Test

(Searle “Minds, Brains”)

Penrose and Searle

• Penrose and Searle agree that the Chinese room give a convincing case against the Strong AI position that computation alone can even suggest conscious mentality

• However Penrose believes that the Chinese room argument is entirely negative and does not provide us with any real clue as to what is actually going on with consciousness nor does it indicate any direction in which we should proceed if we are to attempt to move towards a scientific basis for mentality

(Penrose “The Large” 173 – 174)