Saj Malhi, [EMAIL PROTECTED], wrote : >I would suggest that a computation is something that produces an output.
I don't think it is necessary. What about non stopping computation ? Or non halting Turing Machines, or a dreaming brain, or the "whole" universe ? I think the discussion on whether string or computation can be conscious is a red herring. Neither a string, nor a computation, nor a computer, nor a brain, etc. can be conscious. Only a person can be conscious. The question is could a string and/or a computation incarnate a person (relatively to an environment). With computationnalism the answer is yes, both for string and computation. (Obviously, with comp a computation is a string, or an equivalence class of strings relatively to the choice of an universal Turing machine, so nuances can be introduced for specific purposes). Bruno ===================================================================== | Bruno MARCHAL Phone : +32 (0)2 6502711 | | Universite Libre de Bruxelles Fax : +32 (0)2 6502715 | | Prive : +32 (0)2 3439666 | | Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50 | | IRIDIA, CP 194/6 | | B-1050 BRUSSELS Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Belgium URL : http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/ | =====================================================================
