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From: schechtr@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Joshua B. Schechter)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
Message-ID: <1995Jan14.220013.16741@Princeton.EDU>
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Date: Sat, 14 Jan 1995 22:00:13 GMT
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In article <3f7eo1$2l5@lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk> mtbc100@cus.cam.ac.uk (Mark Carroll) writes:
>|> >In article <1995Jan12.022935.26572@Princeton.EDU>, schechtr@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Joshua B. Schechter) writes:
>(snip)
>|> The issue which I think seems more germane is that if we have a
>|> simulation of a brain, can it actually think? Is there more to
>|> thinking than a deterministic (or probabilistic) process.
>|> 
>|> I'd answer no, but I'm certainly not claiming to have a direct line to
>|> the truth.
>
>I assume the 'no' was to the second question?


Yes. That's what I meant. Sorry if I was unclear.  What I meant to say
was that I believe that the deterministic process which our brains
carry out directly leads to what we entitle "thinking," and any
simulation of the same (or similar) process with enough level of
detail could also be entitled to think.  The questions I am personaaly
curious about (if my beliefs are true) is what similarities need to be
present between our brain and a simulation in order to entitle the
simulation to think, and what level of detail is necessary for such a
simulation? Could a simulation with a high level correspondance to our
brain (at the level of "symbols" perhaps) be thought of as thinking?
And what are the essential properties of thinking; levels of
complexity, self reference, nondeterminism...?

Any thoughts?

