Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site spar.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!gatech!seismo!hao!hplabs!pesnta!greipa!decwrl!spar!ellis From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.math,net.physics Subject: Mind and Turing Machines Message-ID: <646@spar.UUCP> Date: Fri, 8-Nov-85 23:42:53 EST Article-I.D.: spar.646 Posted: Fri Nov 8 23:42:53 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 12-Nov-85 06:24:27 EST References: <1996@umcp-cs.UUCP> <667@hwcs.UUCP> <2031@umcp-cs.UUCP> <509@klipper.UUCP> <1096@jhunix.UUCP> <774@mmintl.UUCP> Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA Lines: 36 Xref: watmath net.philosophy:3099 net.math:2508 net.physics:3542 If I'm not mistaken, the AMOUNT of time taken as a very primitive Turing machine slogs laboriously thru its tape is a matter which we must clearly put aside. There was never any doubt at all from the very beginning that one might perform such tasks in a less laborious fashion. All that matters here is the machine's ability, given inputs {I1, I2,..} to produce outputs {O1, O2, ..} regardless of time. If the difference between time-at-input and time-at-output is yet another functional requirement, then it is only fair that us enginerds should get a chance to do a bit of redesign.. Turing was the perfect mathematician in this sense -- having masterminded a particularly simple-brained approach, he expanded its theoretical conclusions without regard towards any physical consideration whatsoever. Clearly, there are many practical gadgets to improve on linear sequential search times -- binary trees, hashing functions -- so what? Why not use brute force -- an ENORMOUS amount of random access memory! With Todd Moody's extravagant method, we can simply reduce all of human intelligence to a gargantuan storage medium of single bits, corresponding to the truth (or falsity, if 0) of any search key -- namely a yes/no question in phrased in some ideal (Tractatus-like, for instance) language. Theoretically, that's all mind is, right? -michael "The skeptic argues that when I answered `125' to the problem `68+57', my answer was an unjustified leap into the dark; my past history is equally compatible with the hypothesis that I meant quus, not plus, and should have therefore said `5'". - Kripke/Wittgenstein "No course of action could be determined by a rule.." - Wittgenstein