Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mmintl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: Humans and Turing Machines Message-ID: <730@mmintl.UUCP> Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 13:52:26 EST Article-I.D.: mmintl.730 Posted: Thu Oct 24 13:52:26 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 31-Oct-85 04:04:38 EST References: <227@rtp47.UUCP> <608@spar.UUCP> Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT Lines: 18 In article <608@spar.UUCP> ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis) writes: > To many people, machines are things like those our technology has > produced -- collections of simple inert objects interconnected using > simple causal relationships, hierarchically constructed so as to > produce a specific effects in response to associated inputs. The > machines's goodness is usually related to how precisely that it > responds to control inputs. I think you are falling victim to a common misconception here. Simple inert objects interconnected using simple causal relationships will only produce simple machines. No one (recently) has claimed that the human mind can be simulated with a simple machine! However, I would deny that a large computer running a complex program is "interconnected using simple causal relationships". Frank Adams ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka Multimate International 52 Oakland Ave North E. Hartford, CT 06108