The mechanist's dilemma

The Lucas argument can be restated as a dilemma about consistency (see detailed text).

Consider some arbitrary machine M:

Either: M is consistent,

In which case, by Gödel’s theorem there will be a sentence that humans recognise as true but that M can't prove. So, we can do something that machine M can't.

Or, M is not consistent

In which case, M can't be a mind because minds must be consistent systems.

In either case, the machine can't be a mind.

John Lucas (1961).
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