David, thanks. Hofstadter's G-E-B is a delightful (BIG) book, I regret that I lost my (voracious ?) reading situation (possibility), especially to re-read it. Just next week I will quote GEB at a recital I will perform for our area music club about the Wohltemperiertes which "Bach wrote for his sons to practice their fingers in piano-technique learning." I also loved his "translation-book" about that French poem of 1 word lines.- I cannot recall in which book I read that he was tricked by AI people into asking esoteric questions from an AI-computer - getting incredible answers, until next day 'they' confessed and showed him the 5 young guys in another room who made up the replies for him. Thanks for the URL
To the statement in question here: "a 'computation' can be anything I say it is " - I find true, as long as I feel free to identify 'comp' as I like (need) it. (Same for 'numbers' and 'consciousness). John ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Nyman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Everything List" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 10:38 AM Subject: Re: Maudlin's Demon (Argument) > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > >In other words, a 'computation' can be > > > > anything I say it is (cf. Hofstadter for some particularly egregious > > > > examples). > > > > > David, could you give us 'some' of these, or at least an URL to find such? > > John > > I was thinking of various examples in 'Godel, Escher, Bach', and it's > years since I read it. Here's a URL I just Googled that may be > relevant: > > http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/6100/geb.html > > >From memory, Hofstadter decribes 'implementations' of computations that > involve the detailed behaviour of anthills, and worse yet, detailed > descriptions of 'Einstein's Brain' listed in a book that you can > supposedly ask questions and receive answers! Trouble is, Hofstadter is > such a brilliantly witty and creative writer that I could never be > completely sure whether he was deliberately torturing your credulity by > putting these forward as tongue-in-cheek reductios (like Schroedinger > with his cat apparently) or whether he was actually serious. I'll have > to re-read the book. > > David > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > Subject: Re: Maudlin's Demon (Argument) > > (Brent's quote): > > > David Nyman wrote: > > (I skip the discussion...) > > > > > > >In other words, a 'computation' can be > > > > anything I say it is (cf. Hofstadter for some particularly egregious > > > > examples). > > > > > David, could you give us 'some' of these, or at least an URL to find such? > > > > John M > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
