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Comment by cdooh | Hacker News Reader

Does this mean they know right from wrong? The article isn't very clear on what conscious awareness means.

A computer can easily know right from wrong to the degree most humans are capable of (and too often they aren't very sophisticated at that) even today. But it's safe to assume that that ARM processor has no conscious awareness. Conscious awareness is simply the feeling of observing things, a feeling we assume the machines we've built do not have, for example.

Only if you program into the computer what is wrong and what is right.

Is it programmed into us? If not how do we feel it? If it is programmed in, can it be re-written?

Humans adapt to the moral system of their society. There is no set of "universal morals" that all humans have.

But do realise this, since I'm not a moral relativity apologist. I'm going to say that moral systems are not equal and some backward societies need to get their systems fixed.

Have you read the god delusion by Dawkins? There he takes on just that myth - there has been a very good body of research in presenting people with the same set of moral conundrums - every race and culture, even "primitive" have indistinguishable moral responses. (Obviously individual variance was high)

Worth a read.

There is no set of "universal morals" that all humans have.

What about « If "everybody" (who I identify with to at least such-and-such a degree) did X, would it harm me or my family/descendants? »?

How does consciousness imply morality?

Not that correlation implies causation, but as of yet, consciousness is only considered in creatures which also recognize morality.

Not recognised as you say, except by the signatories of this on July 7th 2012.

http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConscious...

very interesting, thanks!

That is of course a big philosophical question. But in lieu of diving into that, because Wikipedia says so:

Conscience is an aptitude, faculty, intuition or judgment of the intellect that distinguishes right from wrong. Moral judgment may derive from values or norms (principles and rules). In psychological terms conscience is often described as leading to feelings of remorse when a human commits actions that go against his/her moral values and to feelings of rectitude or integrity when actions conform to such norms.[1] The extent to which conscience informs moral judgment before an action and whether such moral judgments are or should be based in reason has occasioned debate through much of the history of Western philosophy.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscience

Wrong word. Consciousness, not conscience.

D'oh. Of course.

Yeah. Simple single sentence from me which doesn't do your comment justice.

The connection between consciousness as an idea expressed by this declaration, and general extant environment is an interesting philosophical pursuit. I didn't think conscience so much, as an anterior attribute. But apologies if I appeared curt. I need practice.

No offence taken. Sometimes someone (me) is just wrong, and it shouldn't be unacceptable to point that out in so many words. Conscience and consciousness, despite the common root, just doesn't mean the same thing.

Right and wrong are subjective to humans.

That being said, some people argue that there exist "objective moral values"

I think that argument depends on a certain definition of "objective". A professor of mine argued that there are objective moral values because that there are certain actions that basically all people consider wrong. For example, killing an innocent person for fun. Under his definition, that would be an objectively immoral action.

The notion of objective moral values is that the "right" moral values exist independent of humans and the human mind. (I think.) It is usually a position held by religious types like William Lane Craig.

See debate on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqaHXKLRKzg

They stem from evolution of social animals. Monkeys know right from wrong. They know when they've been taken advantage of.

Most humans don't know the answer to this question all of the time.

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