Brent meeker writes (quoting Peter Jones, Quentin Anciaux and SP): > >>Hi, > >> > >>Le Dimanche 20 Août 2006 05:17, Stathis Papaioannou a écrit : > >> > >>>Peter Jones writes (quoting SP): > >>> > >>>>>What about an inputless computer program, running deterministically > >>>>>like a recording. Would that count as a program at all, > >>>> > >>>>It would be a trivial case. > >>> > >>>Trivial does not mean false. > >> > >>It seems to me that the set of inputless programs contains the set of > >>programs > >>which have inputs. Because a program which have inputs could be written as > >>the following inputless program : > >> > >>|HARDCODED INPUT||CODE| > >> > >>The resulting program is input less but the "substructure" denominated CODE > >>here is not inputless, it takes the hardcoded input. > >> > >>So in any case I don't see why inputless program should be "trivial case". > >> > >>Regards, > >>Quentin > > I thought the question was not about computation, but whether a program was > intelligent or conscious. I think that intelligence means being able to > respond to a > variety of differenet inputs. So above |CODE| might be intelligent but not > the > overall inputless program.
OK, I suppose you could say "I'm intelligent" but not "I + my environment are intelligent". That still allows that an inputless program might contain intelligent beings, and you are left with the problem of how to decide whether a physical system is implementing such a program given that you can't talk to it. 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 [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
