Ben, He is v. explicitly talking about a "paradigm shift" and the mind-as-computer as just one in a series of technological metaphors. Perhaps this will be clearer if you look at his latest book The Continuity of Mind on Amazon, where you can read the introduction. (Sheer philosophy-of-science commonsense tells you that at least broadly he has to be right - IOW the computer as we know it, will sooner or later be replaced by another radically more sophisticated machine). Ben:
I just want to note that there is no real distinction btw continuous-variable models like this as typically used, and computable, Turing-machine-type models. For instance, biologists do detailed simulations of the continuous variables underlying neural activity, on digital computers. And nonlinear continuous-variable equations are normally solved using computational algorithms. In principle, the real number line contains uncomputable numbers. In every single practical application, these are irrelevant, and one could ignore them and use only a finite set of numbers instead. I outlined the detailed reasons why this is the case, in a recent blog post that was already discussed on this list, http://multiverseaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/2008/10/are-uncomputable-entities-useless-for.html -- Ben G On Mon, Nov 3, 2008 at 6:43 PM, Mike Tintner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: This is interesting because it challenges the discrete, stepped, Turing machine conception of thought with a continuous dynamics model. {If anyone knows of more stuff along these lines, I'd be v. interested]. Here's a pdf of Spivey's ideas. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary;jsessionid=5E238B3B3E62E2AF7151EF8B31599E4D?doi=10.1.1.92.3260 ICBS SEMINAR Friday, November 7, 2008 11:am - 12:30 pm 5101 Tolman Hall Michael Spivey, Department of Cognitive Science, UC Merced "Continuous Temporal Dynamics in Real-time Cognition" Rather than a sequence of logical operations performed on discrete symbols, real-time cognition is better described as continuously changing patterns of neuronal activity. The continuity in these dynamics indicates that, in between describable states of mind, much of our mental activity does not lend itself to the linguistic labels relied on by much of psychology. I will discuss eye-tracking and computer-mouse-tracking evidence for this temporal continuity in spoken word recognition, sentence comprehension, categorization, and even decision-making. I will also provide geometric visualizations of mental activity depicted as a continuous trajectory through a neuronal state space. In this theoretical framework, close visitations of labeled attractors may constitute word recognition events and object recognition events, but the majority of the mental trajectory traverses unlabeled regions of state space, resulting in multifarious mixtures of mental states. For more about ICBS: http://icbs.berkeley.edu/ --- Josephine O'Shaughnessy -Human Resources Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) 3210F Tolman Hall MC 3192 University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 ph (510) 643-1274 fax: off-campus (510) 666-2593 fax: on-campus 6-2593 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- agi | Archives | Modify Your Subscription -- 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ agi | Archives | Modify Your Subscription ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
