Article View: comp.ai
Article #8485Re: Can Machines Think?
From: David Chalmers
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1989 06:35
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1989 06:35
18 lines
1203 bytes
1203 bytes
"Programs" do not think. Cognition is not "symbol-manipulation." The "hardware/software" distinction is unimportant for thinking about minds. However: Systems with an appropriate causal structure think. Programs are a way of formally specifying causal structures. Physical systems which implement a given program *have* that causal structure, physically. (Not formally, physically. Symbols were simply an intermediate device.) Physical systems which implement the appropriate program think. -- Dave Chalmers (dave@cogsci.indiana.edu) Concepts and Cognition, Indiana University. "It is not the least charm of a theory that it is refutable" -- Fred
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<31821@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!deimos!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!iuvax!cogsci!daveReferences:
<83367@linus.UUCP> <1989Dec18.014229.18058@athena.mit.edu> <968@metapsy.UUCP>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!deimos!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!iuvax!cogsci!dave From: dave@cogsci.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) Newsgroups: comp.ai,talk.philosophy.misc,sci.philosophy.tech Subject: Re: Can Machines Think? Message-ID: <31821@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Date: 19 Dec 89 06:35:34 GMT References: <83367@linus.UUCP> <1989Dec18.014229.18058@athena.mit.edu> <968@metapsy.UUCP> Sender: root@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Reply-To: dave@cogsci.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington Lines: 18