From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!ames!sun-barr!newstop!news2me.ebay.sun.com!exodus.Eng.Sun.COM!orfeo.Eng.Sun.COM!silber Mon Mar  9 18:33:58 EST 1992
Article 4148 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: silber@orfeo.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Silber)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Reference,Angels,InfoDaemons,& so on
Message-ID: <kqtmppINNjj9@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 29 Feb 92 01:00:41 GMT
References: <1992Feb25.182526.12698@oracorp.com> <18595@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
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In article <18595@castle.ed.ac.uk> cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>
>On the other hand, I think it remains true that what a program does is
>to transform some input data into some output data, and that this
>transformation can only be purely syntactic. This seems to me to pull
>the rug out from under the "English reply". Anyone care to comment?

 It's like medieval disputes about how many angels can fit on a pinhead.
 When theory and practice have advanced another few hundred years,
 these arguments will be viewed either as angelic anachronisms OR as
 the foundations upon which a race of thinking,feeling,living 
 non-biological machines was built.  ... excuse me ... the King's men
 are in the courtyard collecting head taxes, I have to go now, ...
 the crusades are on you know!


