Russell: "...Life-like phenomena" implies something 'life-like'. So: LIKE WHAT are those phenomena? I would not turn to my other side in peace that biologists are negligent. I ask them: what do you have in mind when you SAY: l i f e ? (their base line: the 'bio') It is more than just biochem churnings of C,O,H,N,P,...based molecules. Robert Rosen said: Metabolism and Repair - but on WHAT substrate? Brent is right, the question is open. Then again consider the phenomena in different 'physical' environments - maybe in totally different circumstantial ones. Alife has wide borders I suppose. Hi temp, anerobic, hi/low pressure, different Mendelejeff set-up, different gravity, density, etc. etc.? Consciousness is not far and (my agnostic views) the so far unknown factors get involved as we learn about them. I call this one a response to relations (formerly: information). Life can be anything that changes? where does mentality come in? John M
On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au>wrote: > On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 10:44:37AM -0700, meekerdb wrote: > > But of course we can prove that a machine can think to the same > > degree we can prove other people think. That we cannot prove it > > from some self-evident set of axioms is completely unsurprising. > > This comports with my idea that with the development of AI the > > "question of consciousness" will come to be seen as a archaic, like > > "What is life?". > > > > Brent > > "What is life?" is _still_ a vexing question. Biologists don't worry > too much about it, because the answer to it doesn't really help their > day-to-day work. But in the Artificial Life field, it is more > acute. Mostly we dodge the issue by saying we're studying "life-like" > phenomena, and leave it at that, but at every ALife conference I've > been to, there has been a session (with multiple papers addressing > this or connected topics). > > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > 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 > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > > -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
