Librarian vs a database

[janet <janets@sv.CAT.MX>]

A philosopher friend of mine recently wrote an article on consciousness vs.
mechanism in which he uses a librarian vs a database as a metaphor.  It is
a dialogue between Dave, who is arguing that Hal, the computer in charge of
Discovery (the spaceship)couldn't think as he does if he were a machine.
He must be conscious.  Frank is not sure. The excerpt follows:

"In order to solve a problem ,a problem solver has to draw up relevant
information from wherever it is stored.  Even if you have mounds of
information stored in boxes in an attic,it will only be useful if you can
find the right box.  To retrieve selected information, you create index
cards linked by strings to the boxes.  When you select an index card and
pull a string, a packet of information comes up out of the box.  Even
though a digital computer can do the same thing much faster than index
cards and strings, what problem will it always face in retrieving
information in a mechanical way?

Frank:  No cards, no strings, no info.

Dave:  If a computer lacks rules which guide it in drawing up bits of
information, it can't retrieve that information either.

Frank:  Without conceding that consciousness does something which a brain
cannot do, I know what you mean.  It's the difference between asking a
librarian for information and my trying to use a search engine in the library
by myself.  When I took some courses in a medical school, I would ask the
librarian where I could find some obscure bit of information.  Since she
knew all the databases that were available and the search engines which she
could use, she could track down what I was looking for.  When I tried to
use the
search engines myself, I faced a blank line on the screen challenging me to
type in the correct search term.  If I already knew the right category, it
would link me to further information.  But, if I didn't know what category
to use, I was out of luck.

Dave:  Right.  Hal will be out of luck in grasping novel word usage if he
must always depend on prior links between a word and its referents.  For
example, if we were to present him with a new tool which is not in his
database of tools, he won't be able to recognize it as a tool.

Frank:  Why couldn't he just recognize that, since it is being used to
accomplish something, it must be a tool?

Dave:   To recognize how a particular item exemplifies this general pattern,
he must witness the item in use and then intuit that it is being used as a
tool.  To do this, he must be conscious of all the items in the pattern
taken together.  If Hal were only a machine like Art Meckho, he would lack the
unified witnessing which necessary to intuit a pattern.


The Librarian vs. The Database

Dave:  In order to provide some more reasons why I believe that Hal is
conscious, I'd like to explore some ways in which, because we can witness
many items taken together, you and I can retrieve information more efficiently
than a machine.

Frank:  If this were a contest, we could call it 'The Librarian vs. The
Database'?

Dave:   So to speak, but librarians and databases aren't really enemies,
since, like our mind and our brain, they can work together to solve problems
which wouldn't be possible to either by themselves.  Because a librarian is
conscious of many things at the same time, she can readily draw up useful
bits of information, even if nobody ever asked for just that bit of information
before in just that way.  Because she can do this, she knows how to use the
enormous resources of a database, which can't adjust its own operations ad
hoc to the needs of a particular patron.   Taken together, the librarian
and the
database are synergistic.

Frank:  When you compare the mind and the brain to a librarian and a
database, what do you mean?

Dave:  I mean that, like a librarian who enters data into a database and
then draws up that data, the conscious subject both programs the brain and then
draws upon its resources.

Frank:  That's a far shot from the usual metaphor in Artificial Intelligence
and cognitive science, which thinks of the mind as like the running of a
program by the brain, not as an independent agent in its own right.

Dave:  Even if you don't accept my metaphor, we can still explore the
apparent contrast between conscious and mechanical information retrieval.
Unlike a machine which has to have explicit links with which to retrieve
information, you and I are holistically aware of our past experiences,
perceptions, insights, concepts, and judgments as an ever-present
background against which we interpret our present experience.  In my own
opinion, this is a
difference which makes a difference."  (Jim Mattea, Milwaukee, WI)

Janet Schuh, Librarian
Colegio Americano
Torreon, Coahuila, Mx

janets@sv.cat.mx

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