🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7882@skye.ed.ac.uk>,
jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:

>>I will agree that *given* an abstraction function, and *given* a
>>decomposition of a system into parts, then it may be possible to say,
>>objectively, whether the system with that decomposition and that
>>abstraction function has a certain functional organization.  However,
>>the choice of abstraction function and decomposition are not
>>objective, and can be done in more than one way.
>
>The choice can be done in more than one way, but so what?

So the most you can say is "X has functional organization Y, if you
use abstraction function A". You cannot say "X has functional
organization Y", without giving the abstraction function.

My original complaint was with the idea of distinguishing "programs
with consciousness" from "programs without consciousness" by their
functional organization---programs with certain functional
organizations are conscious, and programs with different functional
organizations are not. This idea doesn't get us anywhere unless we
know which abstraction function A to use.

Daryl McCullough
ORA Corp.
Ithaca, NY