From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!torn!utcsri!rutgers!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!tdat!swf Tue Jun 23 13:21:00 EDT 1992
Article 6290 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: swf@teradata.com (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Transducers
Message-ID: <486@tdat.teradata.COM>
Date: 17 Jun 92 21:03:49 GMT
References: <1992Jun10.203412.19158@news.Hawaii.Edu> <4138.708217481@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1992Jun11.055038.9628@Princeton.EDU>
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Reply-To: swf@tdat.teradata.com (Stanley Friesen)
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In article <1992Jun11.055038.9628@Princeton.EDU> harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad) writes:
|In article <4138.708217481@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
|
|>  To put this in perspective, consider an automobile.  This doesn't look
|>like a set of peripherals and a computational core.  But it can still
|>be described that way.
|
|It can be described, simulated, modelled, predicted and fully explained
|that way -- yet the pure computational model will not drive, because it
|is not a real car, just a virtual car, i.e., squiggles and squoggles
|that are systematically interpretable as if they were a car, driving.

You misunderstand what Neil was saying.  He was *not* talking about a
'pure' computational model, he was talking about a 'computational core +
attached peripherals' model.   And if the appropriate peripherals are
attached, such a vehicle will indeed be functional.  The modern jet fighter,
the F-16, is a perfect example.  The cockpit controls have *no* direct
connection to *any* of the effectors, they are merely input devices to the
computer.  The effectors are totally controlled by the computer (even down
to the computer initiating certain effector actions on its own - the equivalent
of reflex actions that must be done more quickly than the CNS can respond).


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