Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> Peter Jones writes: > > > > A classical computer is perfectly deterministic - it wouldn't be much use > > > as a computer if were not. If > > > it is provided with the same inputs, it will go through the same sequence > > > of physical states. > > > > But here it is not the computation itself that is > > recorded, just the input that drives it. > > > > > On run > > > no. 1 it could be provided with input from a human, or a true random > > > number generator, for example > > > one based on radioactive decay. On run no. 2 it could be provided with a > > > recording of the input from > > > run no. 1, so that we know exactly what the computer's responses will be, > > > as surely as we know what > > > the behaviour of a tape recording or a clockwork mechanism will be. > > > > That doesn't prove that a recording is the same as a > > a computation. What you are talking about is > > a computation driven by a recording. > > That's right, but with a fixed input the computer follows a perfectly > deterministic course, like a clockwork > mechanism, however many times we repeat the run. Moreover, if we consider the > recording of the input > as hardwired into the computer, it does not interact with its environment. So > we have the possibility that > a perfectly deterministic physical system that does not interact with its > environment may be conscious. That depends on what you mean by "environment". In any case, the counterfactuals are still there. > And since the computer may be built and programmed in an arbitrarily complex > way, because any physical > system can be mapped onto any computation with the appropriate mapping rules, That is not a fact. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
