Máquinas computacionales y conciencia artificial

espanolEn este ensayo argumento que la nocion de maquina incluye necesariamente el hecho de ser disenada con un fin. Por tanto, no basta con ser sistema mecanico para ser maquina. Puesto que el metodo cientifico-experimental excluye metodologicamente la consideracion de la finalidad, resulta que tambien es insuficiente para entender cabalmente que son las maquinas. Por el contrario, para entender una maquina es necesario ante todo entender su finalidad (y tambien su estructura), en claro paralelismo con la causa final (y la formal) de Aristoteles. Obviamente, la finalidad y la estructura no son componentes de la maquina que puedan interaccionar fisicamente con otros componentes, y sin embargo son esenciales para comprender su funcionamiento. Esto arroja una interesante luz sobre la relacion entre la mente y el cuerpo: de modo analogo a como la finalidad de un artefacto explica su funcionamiento, la conciencia es la explicacion del comportamiento especifica- mente humano. Maquinas y seres humanos tienen en comun que, para entenderlos, es necesario acudir al principio de finalidad. Pero mientras en las maquinas es una finalidad dada, los seres humanos nos caracterizamos porque podemos proponernos nuestros pro- pios fines. EnglishIn this essay I argue that the notion of machine necessarily includes its being designed for a purpose. Therefore, being a mechanical system is not enough for being a machine. Since the experimental-scientific method methodologically excludes the consideration of finality, it is then also insufficient to fully understand what machines are. On the contrary, in order to understand a machine it is first required to understand its purpose (and also its structure), in clear parallel with Aristotle’s final and formal causes. Obviously, purpose and structure are not machine components that can physically interact with other components, however they are essential to understand its operation. This casts an interesting light on the relationship between mind and body: in analogous way as an artifact’s finality explain its operation, consciousness is the explanation of specifically human behavior. Machines and human beings have in common that, in order to understand them, it is necessary to appeal to the principle of finality. Yet, while finality is given in the case of machines, we human beings are characterized by our possibility to self-propose our own ends.