It seems to me that there are two main sticking points in the discussions on several list threads in recent weeks. One is computationalism: is it right or wrong? This at least is straightforward in that it comes down to a question of faith, in the final analysis, as to whether you would accept a digital replacement brain or not (Bruno's "yes doctor" choice). The other sticking point is, given computationalism is right, what does it take to implement a computation? There have been arguments that a computation is implemented by any physical system (Putnam, Searle, Moravec) and by no physical system (Maudlin, Bruno Marchal). The discussion about Platonism and the ontological status of mathematical structures, in particular, relates to this second issue. Bruno alludes to it in several papers and posts, and also alludes to his "movie graph argument", but as far as I can tell that argument in its entirety is only available in French. Comments and elaboration would be welcome.
Stathis Papaioannou _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
