Frank,
Well, that’s a little blunter than I feel comfortable with because it identifies “answering questions” with consciousness. I like better, “Imagine a computer, however complicated you care to make it, however skilled in its execution of human behaviors in human contexts, can such a computer be conscious?” I would assume from past conversations with you, you would say, “No.” By the way: Am I using the language correctly if I say that a computer is an “instantiation” of a Turing Machine? Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2019 7:33 AM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A question for tomorrow I will channel Nick based on our conversation yesterday. "A computer is a Turing machine and it can answer questions."* I apologize, Nick, if that's not your position. *Alexa, Siri, Hey Google ----------------------------------- Frank Wimberly My memoir: https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly My scientific publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 7:22 AM <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Maybe I've missed it, but has no one pointed out that a "Turing Machine" is a mathematical formalism? I may be a stick in the mud, but I refuse to extend the definition of "know" so far as to make "A Turing Machine knows [something]" a meaningful statement. You might as well ask what a Goedel Enumeration knows, or what The Classification of Finite Simple Groups knows. Hell, what does the integer 1 know??? Now maybe in you-alls' circles, "Turing Machine" is used to refer to some kinds of physical implementations of particular Turing Machines. But that's a pernicious identification that can only lead to tears. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
