On 22 Jan 2013, at 12:36, Roger Clough wrote:
Hi Bruno Marchal You said: "God, matter, consciousness are never computable" Is that because the above are nonphysical ?
Matter is physical, by definition, yet non computable. This follows from the UD Argument.
If consciousness is not computable, can ideas be computable ?
Yes. Most of them are (the programs, the monads).
I'm totally lost. I don't even understand how ANYTHING other than numbers can be computable.
Strings of letter are not number, but the operation of concatenation is computable ( a + baba = ababa). Look at your computer, you see mails, letters, etc. Not number, yet all what you do with your computer (like sending a mail) are computable operation.
Suppose you do a computation. You get a number or a bunch of numbers. How can you say what they mean ?
By remembering the definitions, the axioms I am assuming, etc. I don't see the problem. If you refer to the qualia, this is explain by the peculiarity of the logic of machines self-reference: when machine introspect they can understand things, without completely understanding the understanding process itself. It is normal, but it needs a bot of computer science and mathematical logic to get the complete picture.
Bruno http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/ -- 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.
