Trans. Kim Jones (extract only)
1.1 Mechanist Philosophies 1.1.1 Different types of Mechanism I distinguish the following mechanist hypotheses: BEHAVIOURIST MECHANISM Some machines can behave as thinking beings (living, conscious etc.) (BEH-MEC) STRONG MECHANISM Some machines can think (living beings, conscious beings, have a private life etc.) (STR-MEC) INDEXICAL MECHANISM I am a machine (or - you are a machine, or again - human beings are machines) (IND-MEC) By replacing "machine" by "digital machine" one obtains the corresponding digital theses. The behaviourist digital mechanism BEH-DIG-MEC corresponds largely to that of Turing in his 1950 article. In the same way, the strong digital mechanism STR-DIG-MEC corresponds to what is called in the literature the strong artificial intelligence thesis (strong AI). In this work I am exclusively interested in indexical and digital mechanism (IND-DIG-MEC or just IDM). "Digitality" necessitates Church's Thesis, which is why the digital aspect is explained in its turn in the second part. There, I will show how a procedure, due essentially to Goedel, permits an indexical treatment of machines in general. Proposition: IND-MEC => STR-MEC => BEH-MEC, and BEH-MEC ≠> STR-MEC ≠> IND-MEC. (with or without the hypothesis of digitality) Reasoning: One admits that humans know how to think (conscious beings, having private lives etc.) In this case IND-MEC entails STR- MEC and STR-MEC entails BEH-MEC. That BEH-MEC does not entail STR-MEC is supported by Weizenbaum (1976) (see also Gunderson {footnote 1} 1971). STR-MEC does not entail IND-MEC, since the fact that machines are able to think does not entail that they alone are able to think. It is conceivable that machines are able to think without we ourselves being machines. Wang (1974) presents a similar reasoning. Nevertheless, numerous philosophers make implicit use of an opposing opinion: STR-MEC => IND-MEC, see for example Arsac 1987. {Footnote 1: Gunderson 1971 criticises the Turing Test. The Turing Test is a test for BEH-MEC. Simply put, a machine (hidden) passes the test if it is able to pass itself off as a human being during a "conversation" by means of a computer keyboard terminal.} 1.1.2 Mechanist Philosophy: Historical Summary Contemporary digital mechanist philosophy is due in large measure to Descartes and Hobbes {footnote 2} (see Rogow 1986, Bernhardt 1989). Descartes wanted to distinguish Man from the animals. He argues that the animal, as much as Man's body (including the brain), is a machine. He understood by this a finite assembly of of material components that unequivocally determine the behaviour of the whole. Descartes surmises that the soul is not mechanical. In separating the soul from the body in this way, and thus the mind from matter, he is the originator of the dualist position, widely encompassed by the philosophy of mind. One speaks of Cartesian Dualism. There follows three arguments that Descartes presented in favour of his distinction of man from the animal-as-machine (We note that this distinction entails the negation of IND-MEC.) {footnote 2: One can detect some mechanist affirmations or questions among (pre and post-Socratic, though not necessarily materialist) philosophers, from Greek antiquity (cf Timaeus and Plato, see also Odifreddi 1989). Among Chinese philosophers, for example Lao-Tzu, a certain monk is admired for having passed off his "automated" servants as flesh and blood beings. Among Hindu philosophers for example, in the "Questions to the King Milinda", the human body is compared to the chariot, and the human mind is compared to the different parts of the chariot, similar to Hume's (1739) manner of tackling the problem of identity with his boat. The temptation to set up artefacts in the image of Man is also a component of several myths, (for ex. the Golem in Jewish culture, see for ex. Breton 1990). It is no exaggeration to maintain that the very idea of mechanism appears wherever and whenever machines themselves are developed.} 1) Animals are not endowed with reason and cannot engage in linguistic communication This argument is losing credibility since language and reason seem more accessible to today's machines than for example, emotion which is communally allowed in the case of certain animals (see for ex. Lévy 1987). Here Descartes takes Aristotle's position which asserts that Man is a "reasoning animal". 2) Machines are finite beings. A finite being cannot conceive of the infinite. Now, I am able (said Descartes) to conceive of the infinite. Thus I am not a machine. This argument against IND-MEC brings into relief two fundamental questions: a) Can man conceive of infinity? b) Can a machine conceive of infinity? Question a) differentiates Hobbes' point of view from Descartes'. Hobbes surmises that he cannot in effect conceive of infinity. 3) A machine can only carry out particular tasks, as it turns out, those tasks for which it was constructed. In effect, Descartes is saying: "Since, in the case that reason is a universal instrument that participates in every sort of encounter, these organs need a certain particular disposition for each and every action; from this comes the idea that it is morally impossible that a machine might possess sufficient diversity such that it might act in every living occurrence in the same way that our reason assists our actions (Descartes, "1953", page 165). The idea of a universal machine had nevertheless crossed the mind of Raymond Lulle (1302) whom Descartes had studied. This same idea will reappear with Leibnitz, culminating in the work of Turing, and this will be explained in the second part. La Mettrie will rehash Descartes' animal-as-machine for the purpose of extending it to Man (La Mettrie 1748, see also Gunderson 1971). In parallel with Descartes, Hobbes himself develops the mechanist hypothesis (Rogow 1986). On can date Hobbes' motivation toward mechanism from the time of his discovery of geometry. Having been particularly impressed by the fact that he might have been convinced by a *finite communication* based on logical geometrical reasoning, Hobbes conceives of the mechanistic character of thinking. He then thinks that it should be possible to reduce thinking to addition and subtraction. (see Webb 1980). He is thus very close to the *functionalist* position in the philosophy of mind: that the additions and multiplications might be realisable by a *telegraphic network* , a *hydraulic system*, an *electromagnetic device* , or even *a windmill*, a *catapult* or a *calculating device* (ordinateur), citing Searle's enumeration (Searle 1984). Thought is thereby reduced to operations not necessarily equipment-dependent, and to the constituent matter employed to realise these operations. La Mettrie, after his own fashion, argues in something like the same sense: "Thus a Soul of mud, discovering in the twinkling of an eye, the relations and the consequences of an infinity of ideas difficult to conceive, would be preferable evidently to an ignorant and stupid Soul, which might be made of all the more precious Elements" (La Mettrie 1748). Similarly, Lafitte engages us on the subject of Babbage, precursor of 19th century information processing, to which we will return in the second part: "For Babbage, all machines being a composition of different organs linked together in a complex manner, the important thing to fix is less the very form of the organs than the sequencing of their functions, which relates to organic linkages that cause the ensemble to function." (Lafitte 1930). Differing with Descartes, Hobbes concludes that it is not possible that Man - whom he considers to be a finite being - might conceive of the infinite. Hobbes' motivation, being finitist and indexical (human thought is mechanisable) is therefore opposed to Descartes' animal-as- machine and is, in this sense, much closer to the contemporary motivation in the direction of artificial intelligence. Soon I will return to the relation existing between mechanism and functionalism. 1.1.3 What is a machine? Given the familiar connotations of the word "machine" - locomotives, electric kettles, automobiles, computers, microscopes, dish-washers, sewing machines, rice-cookers, time-pieces, mechanism may well seem grotesque. Even if machines are considered to be artefacts of exclusively human construction, in other words artificial, the concept of the machine is difficult to define. Lafitte, in 1911 argues that just such a definition can only be made in vain: "To claim to be able to define the concept of a machine is to suppose that the science of machines has come about, or that it might one day come about in all it's perfection. Other than what is chimerically- speaking, to assign limits to the development of mechanical forms, is to suppose in the first place an entire and complete knowledge of the character of every individual present and future mechanism, followed by the perfection of a measuring instrument capable of situating each into a definitive category according to their ensemble of characteristics. But, this again implicitly admits to a massive division of sorts, conforming to those contours we can cleanly envisage and having no link whatsoever with other bodies." (see also further on 2.3) Similarly, La Mettrie, in "Man as Machine" writes: "Man is a Machine so composed that it is frankly impossible to initially get a clear idea of it and consequently to arrive at a definition" What Hobbes and Descartes have in common is that a machine is a locally finite being. Its global behaviour is determined by the behaviour of its elementary constituents, these being finite in number at each instant (call this the "digital aspect"). The number of components can nonetheless grow according to the work performed by the machine. (to be cont.) K Email: kimjo...@ozemail.com.au Web: http://web.mac.com/kmjcommp/Plenitude_Music Phone: (612) 9389 4239 or 0431 723 001 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---