Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!killer!tness7!tness1!nuchat!sugar!peter
From: peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: *IF*?
Message-ID: <2292@sugar.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jul 88 15:16:30 GMT
References: <58.22CCF148@isishq.UUCP>
Organization: Sugar Land UNIX - Houston, TX
Lines: 24

In article <58.22CCF148@isishq.UUCP>, doug@isishq.UUCP (Doug Thompson) writes:
> Thus a quantum leap in technology is needed, a different kind of 
> computer, to even begin to process data of any sort (even mathematical 
> data) the way the human mind processes data. 

Not at all... you can do it with heavy use of brute force. First you need
to have a program that will model reality down to the quantum level. I think
we have the information to do that, even if we don't have the technology
yet. Now, you model a few cubic meters of space containing a human. You
now have a computer program (the simulator) processing data in exactly
the same way a human does.

You even get the same input spectrum (as you call it).

I'm not saying this is useful, but it does indicate that a very fast
computer of the kind we use today could solve the problem. Application is
merely a matter of stepwise refinement :->. (yeh, this is pretty heavy brute
forec).

Better algorithms would make it easier, of course.
-- 
-- `-_-' Peter (have you hugged your wolf today?) da Silva.
--   U   Mail to ...!uunet!sugar!peter, flames to /dev/null.
-- "Running DOS on a '386 is like driving an Indy car to the Stop-N-Go"