It's not the endowment (biological or algorithmic) but the interaction with the environment that's most important: especially for developmental cognitive systems.
> Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 12:11:17 -0400 > Subject: [agi] A Program Is Not Completely Predefined Until It Has Been Run > For The Last Time > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > > When someone writes a word processing program he cannot know, as he > writes it, everything that the users will write as they use it. This > proves that a program, even though it may be preplanned, is not > limited to precisely producing only something that is totally > preplanned. I would call the parts of the word processor algorithms > even though the term is not exactly the same as the mathematical > definition that is given in Wikipedia. My guess is that the dominant > mathematical definition of the word “algorithm” proffered in Wikipedia > was actually formulated in the twentieth century. I certainly do not > use the word in only this way, although I have to admit that I > sometimes have felt that my use of the term was somewhat awkward. > > Now, a programmer could write his word processor program so that it > did not take every single letter that a user typed in. In this case, > neither the programmer, nor the user could predict beforehand what > would be appended to the text. In fact, the programmer could design > the program so that no one could predict which letters would be > appended regardless of their knowledge of the program and of computer > science. This shows that a computer program is not necessarily fully > predefined by the program itself but may be dependent on how it is > used. If a program can react to Input then it can react in creative > and unpredictable ways. (The fascination for “prediction” that some > AGIers worship seems slightly ironic given that some unpredictability > seems like a requisite for independent thinking.) > Jim Bromer > > > ------------------------------------------- > AGI > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/19999924-5cfde295 > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
