Hi Nick,
I think you are onto something with the "intuition trap". When I first heard
the Monty Hall problem, I suspected the best strategy would be to stick to
one's original choice. If Monty Hall is trying to get me to change my choice,
he is probably trying to avoid having to give me an
Hi Nick,
My theory would be that in order to drain the upper bottle, the best route for
the water is to move along a cyclical path. And the best path follows a
preferred rotation, say clockwise or counterclockwise. If you start the
rotation along the preferred rotation, then the bottle
Hi Nick,
We have been entertaining visitors for the week-end. I did notice that you seem
to be back on the farm. Do you want to meet for chess or philosophy or both?
--John.
From: Friam on behalf of Nicholas Thompson
Sent: Saturday, July 1, 2023 3:40 PM
To:
Is that the Santa Fe Nonsoon or the Massachusetts Nonsoon
From: Friam on behalf of Nicholas Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2023 8:56 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: [EXT] [FRIAM] New Mexico SNOTEL Santa Fe (922) (05P09S )
I would like to hear more about these strange numbers. They could arise from a
huge number of lesbian attachments as compared to gay male attachments.
Alternatively, there might be a much larger number of males as compared to
females, despite the fact that men are more likely to commit suicide,
Hi Nick,
I read (once over lightly) the piece by Levin and Dennett called "Cognition
All the Way Down". It intrigues me but I also find myself saying "Yeah sure".
Can we really say anything about the goals of microorganisms just by allowing
ourselves the luxury of using language that would
I'm pretty slow on the uptake in this conversation. I'm still thinking about
there being no "out there". The language we use seems to be based on concepts
such as "out there". So if "out there" makes no sense then our language is
deeply flawed and, at best, an approximate instrument. It would
.)
--John
From: Eric Charles
Sent: Saturday, December 7, 2019 9:00 AM
To: John Kennison
Cc: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [EXT] Re: [FRIAM] A pluralistic model of the mind?
John,
This is a wonderful question, and though it has already gone one way in the
thre
Hi Nick, and Eric,
I am grappling with Nick's ideas that mental states must be physical things and
even are "out there" rather than "in here". What about delusions? If I think I
see bear in the woods but I am mistaken, is this false perception "out there"
even when the bear is not?
--John
Hi Nick,
I'm not a probabilist nor a statistician
but I think you could find a math web site that would give you what you want.
The Wolfram Mathematica gives the normal distribution and I imagine that you
could subtract one distribution function from another .
I'm not certain why you seem to
t; future theory of the subject.
[†] Rosen, "Anticipatory Systems", pp 321-322. Pergamon Press, 1985.
[‡] von Neumann, "The General and Logical Theory of Automata", p 318. In Taub,
"Collected Works".
On 10/30/18 6:27 AM, John Kennison wrote:
> I am going to wait until
2
Phone (505) 670-9918
On Sat, Oct 27, 2018, 5:16 PM John Kennison wrote:
Hi Frank,
I didn't realize it was supposed to be a joke --it seemed like a relevant
example. I'm not an algebraic geometer but:
. . . there is a historical survey in
https://www.ime.usp.br/~pleite/pub/ar
Hi Nick,
I would like to grapple with your challenge to mathematicians, but I need a
clearer idea of what the challenge is. Here are some possibilities:
(1) Recently, I have been trying to find some kind of mathematical entity that
produces a "chronicle" (i.e. a sequence of outcomes in
Hi Frank,
I didn't realize it was supposed to be a joke --it seemed like a relevant
example. I'm not an algebraic geometer but:
. . . there is a historical survey in
https://www.ime.usp.br/~pleite/pub/artigos/abhyankar/abhyankar.pdf
Historical Ramblings in Algebraic Geometry and Related
P.S. I just realized that when Frank said "Look no further than me" he was not
referring to his considerable knowledge, but to himself. It's a nice point.
JK
____
From: John Kennison
Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2018 2:32:37 PM
To: The Friday Morni
draft #2
How idoes genetic programming with automatic function definition not achieve
this?
From: Friam on behalf of John Kennison
Reply-To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Date: Saturday, October 27, 2018 at 6:21 AM
To: "Friam@redfish. com"
Subject: Re
I like the idea of a non-sequential machine, or perhaps, a being, whose
operation is NOT determined by knowing how its component parts function. I
don’t see how to go about constructing such a thing, unless I assume that there
are laws of physics which remain undiscovered. So for now, I will
Hi Nick,
I'm thinking I should look at a newer book by Rosen and see if it seems. better
than "Life Itself". Do you think that the book you ordered (I'm not certain
what it was) would be good? Or, alternatively, what is the best recent book by
Rosen?
--John
I remember reading, or trying to read, Rosen's "Life Itself". For a long time
it seemed like Rosen was onto something very important and exciting but, to my
mind, he never even came close to delivering. The conclusion of "Life Itself"
was, for me, a complete disappointment.
The material
Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 2:23 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com>
Subject: R
hough they may be so
pervasive and promiscuous as to cross-fertilize so thoroughly that they will be
a single "organism" for all practical purposes.
- Steve
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 7:17 AM
To: Th
I once thought I had a sure-fire way to make games between humans and computers
fairer. Start with a large set of chess-like games that use different boards,
different pieces, different rules. Enumerate the games so that each one
corresponds to a n-digit binary numeral (for large n). Then make
I don't think that a rigorous proof of how evolution works would be all that
earth-shaking. Most openly non-scientific religions have had much experience at
simply ignoring such proofs and the more liberal religions have found ways to
co-exist with science ("Maybe God used evolution to create
Nick,
Do NOT try to teach your 9 year old granddaughter calculus. Instead give her
challenging problems that can be solved by elementary methods. If you try to
teach her something she is not ready for, math will become a chore --possibly a
chore for which she is greatly praised, but still a
Eric,
Why would you ask about the pain IN the video? Shouldn't the person reply. "I
don't believe in pain IN anything because, for me, pain is not internal it is
external."
Nick,
That was a neat way of touching there square root of 2. If we changed it to the
cube root of 2, we have a classic
Hi, Russ, Eric, Nick, et al,
I hope you will humor me and carry out my request to help me get a clearer
sense of your exchanges. Below, I present a series of observations about a man
who is driving a car followed by a conclusion that one might draw. I am asking
each of you whether the
rsity
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam
[mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>] On Behalf
Of John Kennison
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee
tablish the
initial facts).
On 02/24/2016 11:52 AM, John Kennison wrote:
> The issue of whether Charlemagne ate eggs for breakfast is not the question I
> am raising, it is only an illustration of my question. My actual question (as
> I now understand it) is whether there is a rea
r for Teaching, Research, and Learning
American University, Hurst Hall Room 203A
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20016
phone: (202) 885-3867 fax: (202) 885-1190
email: echar...@american.edu<mailto:echar...@american.edu>
On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 2:51 AM, John Kennison
<j
random. We are still in the weeds, here.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Washington, DC 20016
phone: (202) 885-3867<tel:%28202%29%20885-3867> fax: (202)
885-1190<tel:%28202%29%20885-1190>
email: echar...@american.edu<mailto:echar...@american.edu>
On Tue, Feb 23, 2016 at 2:51 AM, John Kennison
<jkenni...@clarku.edu<mailto:jkenni...@c
devote a sub thread to it.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Tuesday, Febr
I don't know it I am following all this correctly, but I would like to apply it
to the question of doing History scientifically. At the start all we have are
relics from the past --maybe we are uncertain which objects and/or documents
really go back to a historical period under
I can’t find cc of the published vsn at the moment.
I will think about the intimacy issue. I think it’s about having some others
who know things about you that are not generally known. I would argue that
when you get into bed with somebody naked, it’s a metaphor. But then, I am old.
Ni
S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2016 2:26 AM
To: The Friday Morning Appli
k University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam
[mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com<mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com>] On Behalf
Of John Kennison
Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 2:30 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Co
One thing I wonder about (or perhaps have forgotten) in this discussion and
Nick's denial is what the denial is based on. Is the absence of subjectivity
supposed to be a scientific fact? If so, we should be discussing the
experimental foundations of this fact. I have read of some experiments
I'm having trouble keeping up with this thread, but how does it relate to
severely autistic people with almost zero social skills who, nonetheless, can
prove deep mathematical theorems?
From: Friam [friam-boun...@redfish.com] on behalf of Nick Thompson
...@american.edumailto:echar...@american.edu
On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 1:16 PM, John Kennison
jkenni...@clarku.edumailto:jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
Thanks Nick,
I found a few statements I would revise in what I wrote.
Perhaps, I should have said that my argument seems valid rather correct.
I was careless in describing
/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 11:50 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] BBC News - Ant colony 'personalities' shaped
/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 2:49 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] BBC News - Ant colony 'personalities' shaped
. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 6:38 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied
Nick:
I find your distinction between metaphysical questions and factual questions
helpful because it clarifies the vague feeling I expressed about making some
sort of error when I said that consciousness is having an inner subjective
life. I no longer feel it is an error but I should
.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2014 8:35 AM
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Nick,
I guess my criterion for consciousness would be something like has an inner
subjective life. It's not something that I can measure and it has the problem
of circularity --if you ask me what I mean by an inner subjective life I
will soon be making a circular definition. I am willing to
] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 11:00 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] BBC News - Ant colony 'personalities' shaped by
environment
Nick,
I guess my criterion for consciousness would be something like has an inner
subjective
University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] BBC News - Ant
07, 2014 11:03 PM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] rational
IS THERE A LOGICIAN IN THE HOUSE?
John kennison asked:
AT any rate, my question would be: Is there a sense in which the [below]
type of thinking (based on the premises Nick assumed
I think one example might be I oppose gay marriage because it would undermine
my own (straight) marriage.
One could interpret the reason given as a false premise (you could always do
that whenever someone gives a reason for a belief) but here it looks more like
a rationalization. Of course I
University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-Original Message-
From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of John Kennison
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 10:35 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] rational
I
From: Friam [friam-boun...@redfish.com] on behalf of glen [g...@ropella.name]
Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2014 6:24 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] rational
On 01/07/2014 02:50 PM, John Kennison wrote:
Watching men
Concerning the statement:
My intuition tells me that all thinking is rational – it’s just that most of
it is weak or founded on truly crazy premises.
I think this is one of the issues to be explored. It seems to work for the
person who believes that every statement in the bible is literally
I consider myself a rational person because I believe what I observe and I
believe in what is observed by any group of people I trust (such as a near
consensus of scientists). I further believe in whatever follows logically. I
believe I can predict the likely consequences of my actions and this
. The workshop
starts the end of January.
Merle
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 6:17 AM, John Kennison
jkenni...@clarku.edumailto:jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
I consider myself a rational person because I believe what I observe and I
believe in what is observed by any group of people I trust
I wonder if Russ's question relates to a point that was raised in another
thread –one that I tried to follow --unsuccessfully because it was mostly over
my head. Nick wrote that:
Again, acting in my capacity as the Village Pragmatist, I would assert that
science is the only procedure capable
Russ,
Before people knew about magnetism, it must have seemed miraculous that two
stones would spontaneously start to move toward (or away from) each other. Now
we can say, Oh, it's just magnetism. But if we think about long enough, we
may still wonder how two objects can move toward or away
It seems that the complexity of organisms would grow more quickly than
exponential growth when the complexity is low and les quickly as the complexity
increases. Here's my analysis. Let us say that an animal of complexity level 1
evolves to complexity level 2 is T years. How long will the
I'm a mathematician but I rarely use Mathematica or MatLab (only occasionally,
for curios)--and don't know what R is. Some mathematicians use these tools in
teaching, but I'm not that enthusiastic about them --and tend not to teach
courses where they would be most appropriate. I do use Latex
There are some things we take so completely on faith that we have great trouble
even realizing that we are making an assumption. For example, when I open my
eyes, I take it on faith that I am seeing an actual physical universe, and not
simply recording impulses that my eyes forwarded to my
Yes, I agree with this defense of the concept of universal gravitation. It may
seem strange to say that objects can instantaneously exert a force on a distant
object but it enables us to explain and accurately predict motions.
I have in mind a different type of criticism of Newton's laws of
it uses bad magic? I want to
think about these questions as a review these posts. I will be in touch when I
get back to Massachusetts.
Thanks, everybody.
Nick
-Original Message-
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of
John Kennison
Sent
Eric,
A cannonball shot into the air eventually returns to Earth. In Newtonian
physics, we say that the cannonball does so because the Earth exerts a force on
the cannonball which pulls it back down. Would you say this is a magical
explanation? Why or why not?
Also, would you say this is
The Cannonball trajectory problem seems to be solved, but maybe we need to take
relativity or whatever into consideration for certain cannonballs. Or maybe
cannonballs will start to behave differently next year (for example if basic
physical constants can suddenly shift). But we can (I think)
that the coin has two heads. Isn't that
the analogue to the problem of inducition?
N
-Original Message-
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of
John Kennison
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2012 3:07 PM
To: russ.abb...@gmail.com; The Friday Morning
I agree. People who think that a fair coin is due to come up tails after a
string of heads are not so much anti-inductivist (or whatever term might be
used) as naive in applying the rule that over the long run, the percentage
difference between the the number of heads and number of tails
, 2012 at 2:11 AM, John Kennison
jkenni...@clarku.edumailto:jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
Sometimes religious leaders like to point out that intellectually, we need
starting points, such as induction. So, faith in God, for example, is just one
possible starting point. Other religious leaders say
culture / television / parent et.al
) which attach itself to the child's memory (memes).
Sorry, if I'm somewhat vague/unclear - buts its not easy reconciling
religion and science.
Sarbajit
On 3/17/12, John Kennison jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
Sarbajit,
Thanks for the explanation. I
-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf
Of John Kennison
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2012 6:51 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] FW: See this?
Hi Nick,
I understand that you are irked by the phrase genetic greed but I
) genetically
onto copies using GCTA, just as I suppose a colour photocopier does
using CMYK.
Sarbajit
On 3/16/12, John Kennison jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
Yes, sometimes scientific theories resemble religions and vice-versa and
sometimes the debate on how genes evolve looks a bit like a battle
Self-referential statements can lead to paradoxes, so one could say the
question is not well-formed because it is self-referential.
If, as mentioned, choice (C) were 0%, and options (A),(B),(D) were unchanged,
then the question leads to a paradox.
If choice (D) were 50%, and options (A),
I approached this talk on Math Education as a skeptic -I have always thought
that the idea of letting the computer do all the work sounds great but is
flawed. Of course, I don't like the idea of presenting math in the schools as
mainly rules of calculation, but I feared that using calculators
But would referees need some incentive to do a good job of reviewing a paper?
If we only go by economic motivation, and if our pay goes down the longer we
take, why not do a rush job? If reviewers are paid, shouldn't their work be
evaluated? Perhaps it is. Editors make note of who does a good
Selecting for productive coops rather than productive hens might reject highly
productive, highly aggressive hens in favor of somewhat less productive,
considerably less aggressive hens who would leave their coop-mates in peace
(and therefore able to produce more eggs). Such hens need not have
I am reminded of two conflicting reports I got from two friends about an
attempt to evolve a sorting program. One friend reported that it was
discouraging. The evolved programs never were reliable and they took all kinds
of time and had many superfluous features. The only way to actually get
is that there has to be a path from the initial primitives to
the goal in which each step has increasing fitness. If you've got that an
evolutionary process should get there. If not, it probably won't.
-- Russ
On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 1:22 PM, John Kennison
jkenni...@clarku.edumailto:jkenni
I bet those brains would be good on toast, like calf brains.
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of
Douglas Roberts [d...@parrot-farm.net]
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 10:51 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
I believe it is referred to in the book Unto Others by David Sloan Wilson and
Eliot Sober.
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Ted
Carmichael [teds...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 5:34 AM
To: The Friday
Just a note --I've never liked that old saw about the black cow
--mathematicians are always working with generalizations. Scientists are the
ones who claim to be working strictly with observations.
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com
Suppose there are C cups of water in the ocean and each cup has M molecules of
water. Then there are CM molecules of water in the ocean. One cupful, or M
molecules, are marked, so M out of MC, or 1 out C, molecules in the ocean are
marked. In a cup of water taken at random (i.e. from a
Russ,
The natural numbers can be described by listing a few axioms for the notion of
successor (or the next whole number after this one or the operation of
adding one) so, in some sense it is a very simple system. Yet all of
mathematics can, in some sense be coded into statements bout the
+ introduction
On 09 Apr 2010 at 04:47 PM, John Kennison related
Leigh,
Is there a more complete title for the Dynamical System Theory in Biology
volume from 1970? Is it a journal? or a series? It does sound interesting.
Thanks.
This is a book.
Dynamical System Theory in Biology
Volume I
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] invitation + introduction
John,
I love such clarity - as expressed in your explanation of category theory. My
reaction is Oh, so THAT's what category theory is! Thanks for taking the time
to explain.
Grant
John Kennison
+ introduction
John,
Sounds very pertinent, and applicable to my current research - which I
call Organic Complex Systems. Looking forward to your PDF. Pls send
links to, or copies of, your 3 pubs if you will.
Thanks,
Grant
John Kennison wrote:
Thanks, Grant and Owen, for the votes of confidence
+ introduction
On Apr 7, 2010, at 12:10 PM, John Kennison jkenni...@clarku.edu wrote:
Hi Leigh,
snip
Nick introduced me to Rosen’s “Life Itself” and I have skimmed some articles
by Rosen. I am both fascinated and disappointed by Rosen’s work. Fascinated
by what Rosen says about the need to develop
, John Kennison related
Hi Leigh,
I guess I?m a Friam lurker too. I?m a friend of Nick Thompson and a retired
math professo. I like to read the Friam posts but I comment only
occasionally. I?m currently working on dynamical systems and using category
theory to break a system down into its
...@backspaces.net]
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 5:36 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Health care [was Sources of Innovation]
On Feb 15, 2010, at 11:15 AM, John Kennison wrote:
I was thinking about what Eric said and realized that I don't know
what happens
There is much I don't like about the two healthcare bills, and I fear that the
compromise package will not work well (Compromises that make good sense
politically often fail to make sense economically --as in the cartoon of two
congressmen making a deal: Okay, then it's agreed, I'll vote for
As noted below, Thurston’s interesting paper states that:
“Mathematics AS WE PRACTICE IT, is much more formally complete and precise than
other sciences, but it is much less formally complete and precise for its
content than computer programs.”
If it were required that mathematical proofs be
Isn't it possible that an emergent phenomenon might be mysterious to an
observer who didn't know how it was implemented? For example, how might
lodestones(?) (I mean magnetized rocks) appear to someone who observed them
before the theory of magnetism had been formulated?
, August 05, 2009 12:49 PM
To: friam@redfish.com; nickthomp...@earthlink.net
Cc: John Kennison
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] manifold in mathematics
On 5 Aug 2009 at 10:37, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
There is a topologist on the list (at least one)
Before attempting a substantive reply to this post, I am
Yes, that's a terrific story. I liked the phrase hard-earned TARP money
From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russ
Abbott [russ.abb...@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 21, 2009 9:55 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied
this count
as evidence for inner states?
---John
From: Russ Abbott [russ.abb...@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 10:57 AM
To: John Kennison
Cc: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group;
nickthomp...@earthlink.net; e...@psu.edu
Subject: Re
Nick and I are on opposite sides of the consciousness debate. I think there is
an inner mind and that I experience it. Nick rejects statements not made from
the third person perspective. Perhaps the debate suffers from a feeling that if
we take Nick's third person view, we are not allowed to
I'd like to switch from robots to towns. Sometimes we loosely talk of a town's
spirit. We might say that the spirit is dampened when the town's little league
team loses to the team from an adjoining town. Or that the town is suffering
from a political illusion, etc. But we can say these things
friend is not a tiger.
--John
From: Nicholas Thompson [nickthomp...@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 1:32 AM
To: John Kennison; friam@redfish.com
Subject: RE: [FRIAM] The ghost in the machine (was 'quick question')
John,
John,
All good
Nick,
I'm not sure if I am correctly representing your position about the
third-person point of view, but I would agree that if we want to construct a
scientific theory of consciousness, it must be based on a third person
approach. But it seems possible that there are some facts about 'the
Nick,
It seems to me that a negotiating model assumes that the robots have an agreed
upon method of communication, which includes transmitting of offers. Also, it
is assumed that we have a model of each robot's position, which might be
simplified to something like 'the robot moves to the
As a practicing mathematician, my understanding is that it is permissible to
define anything by a property if and only if you can prove there exists a
unique thing with that property.
For example, you cannot define sqrt(49) as an integer whose square is 49
since there are two such integers.
Thanks Robert for your reply
I want to move on to the question of where math is effective. Previously, I
wondered about the existence of domains where short logical implications were
reliable but long chains of logical implications may start to be ineffective.
In a sense this is true of any
1 - 100 of 108 matches
Mail list logo
