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This seems as fruitful as debating whether my car brought me to work today because some connotations of “bring” include volition.


Except with an important difference: There aren't a bunch of people out there busy claiming their cars literally have volition.

If people start doing that, it changes the stakes, and "bringing" stops being a safe metaphor that everyone collectively understands is figurative.


Nobody’s* claiming that. People are being imprecise with language and others are imagining the claim and reacting.

* ok someone somewhere is but nobody in this conversation


I think what he's saying is that if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and eats bread then it doesn't matter if it's a robotic duck or not because it is in all practical ways a duck. The rest is philosophy.




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