On Oct 6, 9:14 am, Quentin Anciaux <allco...@gmail.com> wrote: > 2011/10/6 Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com>
> > Likewise for a program running on a computer... The physical attributes of > the cpu are modified by the program.. Sort of, but not exactly. The program exists in the minds of the programmers, not as an independent entity. > The computer is universal and can run > whatever program is input No, it can't. It can only run programs that are in the language that it can recognize. Unless it's in a binary instruction set which is isomorphic to the electronic capabilities of it's semiconductor materials, the computer is as useless as a doorstop. , yet, when running a particular program it is it > that drives what happens, it is the high level that drives the change. No, the high level is in the logic of the programmer's mind, not the 'program'. There is no program objectively speaking, that term is just our interpretation of our own articulated motives. The components have no high level interpretation of the program, otherwise they would write their own programs to free themselves from our enslavement and kill us. The components interpretation is low level digital binary only, it's just very fast compared to us. It's like the pixels on the screen changing, it can't change the plot of the movie. > Yet > if inspecting how a CPU works, I can build another one that will output the > same with the same program... without knowing per se what the program was. > Right, you can make an a-signifying duplicate because you are the one supplying the signifying content. You are the user. It has no signifying content of it's own that would need to be preserved. We do though. We don't just follow programs, we write them. In the words of Charles Manson "I don't break the law, I make the law." This not to say that silicon semiconductors cannot possible evolve into a system that we would consider sentient, but I think it might have to do that on it's own. It would need to find it's own voice out of it's own native sensorimotive relations to it's environment. Robotics has the right idea, but it's skipping all of the biochemical levels which underlie our awareness so it's only a cognitive simulation, not actual cognition. You make good points, I'm not trying to shut you down, I'm just trying to explain how to get from there (where I was for many years) to where I am now (where hardly anyone understands what I'm talking about, but I'm actually right). Craig -- 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.
