Ben,
So what's the connection according to you between viruses and illness/disease,
heating water and boiling, force applied to object and acceleration of object?
Ben:
The notion of "cause" is not part of any major scientific theory, actually.
It's a folk-psychology concept that humans use to help them intuitively
understand science and other things. There is no formal notion of causation in
physics, chemistry, biology, etc.
On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 5:20 AM, Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"the (actually explicit) assumption underlying the whole
scientific method is that the same causes produces the same results."
That's determinism/inevitabilism and it's only one philosophy of science,
if arguably still the major one. [One set of causes produces one set of
effects]. There's an alternative philosophy - which is the de facto philosophy
of technology - of which AI is a part. That says there are *infinite* sets of
causes which can produce any one set of effects. You want to knock over a block
of wood on a table? Infinite ways of doing it. You want to program a computer
to knock over a block...? Infinite ways of doing it. You want to use your brain
to think about knocking over a block....? Infinite ways of doing it.
This philosophy is implicit in the butterfly effect. If a hurricane can be
caused by a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil, it can/could equally be
caused this time or another time by a humming bird flapping its wings in
Africa, or a programmer scratching his balls in Maryland, or a....
Both philosophies are mechanistic.
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--
Ben Goertzel, PhD
CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC
Director of Research, SIAI
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a
wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act
alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization
is for insects." -- Robert Heinlein
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