2009/1/14 Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > However a Turing machine is not just a set of states, it also requires a > set of transition rules. So in the same abstract way that the integers > are ordered by "succession" the computational states of a Turing machine > are ordered. Whether just abstract rules, without implementation, are > sufficient isn't clear to me.
In an actual physical computer the transition rules are represented by the causal links between the states, so that a particular input will reliably give rise to a particular output. But I return to my question about what would happen if there were a discontinuity in a sequence of states, so that s1 to s10 on m1 are causally linked, s11 to s20 on m2 are causally linked, but there is no link between m1 and m2, i.e. m2 just happens to start in s11 accidentally. Assuming that s1 to s20 occurring in a single machine results is a few moments of consciousness (which is to say, assuming that computationalism is true), what would happen if the sequence is broken in the way just described? -- Stathis Papaioannou --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
