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Article 4123 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: c89ponga@odalix.ida.liu.se (Pontus Gagge)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Intelligence Testing
Message-ID: <1992Feb27.230822.14739@ida.liu.se>
Date: 27 Feb 92 23:08:22 GMT
References: <1992Feb22.171652.5827@oracorp.com> <6255@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Sender: news@ida.liu.se
Organization: CIS Dept, Univ of Linkoping, Sweden
Lines: 48

jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes (in response to daryl@oracorp.com):

[Further table-lookup discussion omitted]

>There's really nothing mysterious about this.  Suppose we had a 
>C compiler that looked up the object code in a huge table.  Now
>someone comes along and (without knowing how it works) asks
>whether it's executing a graph-coloring register allocation
>algorithm.  

>I say: no it's just looking things up in a table.  The interesting
>register allocation algorithm might have been involved in making the
>table, but it's not doing anything like that now, when compiling the
>program.

>Then you come along and say: But wait!  The data is enormously
>complex!  I believe this compiler is running register allocation
>algorithms as complex as those in any compiler.

>And then you say I have to convince you that nothing of the sort
>is going on.

>I must say I find that approach rather bizarre.

This is yet another variation on the theme of "implementation".
This table-lookup does implement the graph-colouring; however,
it does so in an unusual manner. 

This has all been hashed out previously, but really, if you
establish the table by using a graph-colouring algorithm; 
then there is a bijection from the table entries to states
of the algorithm. 

That you can describe the structure of something in simple terms
does not mean that this something is simple. For instance, I could
describe my brain as a "lump of matter". This ignores the manifold
complexities in much the same way that a description of the table
as "a set of entries" ignores the complexity of the transition
function.

[And a several exchanges afterwards also omitted]
--
/-------------------------+-------- DISCLAIMER ---------\
| Pontus Gagge            | The views expressed herein  |
| University of Link|ping | are compromises between my  |
|                         | mental subpersonae, and may |
| c89ponga@und.ida.liu.se | be held by none of them.    |
\-------------------------+-----------------------------/


