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Article 5375 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,talk.phlisophy.misc
Subject: Re: Question: Minds and Machines
Message-ID: <1992May2.170158.5837@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
Date: 2 May 92 17:01:58 GMT
References: <1992May1.180642.15402@msc.cornell.edu>
Sender: news@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu
Reply-To: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
Organization: Center for Neural Systems, Memory, and Aging
Lines: 39

In article <1992May1.180642.15402@msc.cornell.edu> Christopher Manly writes:
>
>Specifically, in what ways do human minds resemble computers or machines?
>
  I think this is an interesting enough question to deserve a posted
discussion (even though you asked that responses not be posted).

  First, to be pedantic, the question is not aptly formulated.  The
proper contrast is of brains (rather than minds) versus computers,
and of minds versus processes (which are active incarnations of
programs).  So there are actually two questions:  1) In what ways
do brains resemble computers?, and 2) In what ways do minds 
resemble computer processes?

  Regarding (1), the greatest resemblence is at a very abstract level:
both computers and brains are essentially information processing
devices.  Computers operate by moving binary pulses around and
recombining them, while brains operate by moving action potentials
around and recombining them.  Both the binary pulses and the action
potentials function as carriers of information.  (Brains also
operate as hormone-releasing glands, but this is a relatively 
minor role.)  Certainly at a more concrete level, brains and
computers are so different that it is difficult even to make
useful comparisons between them; though recent parallel computer
designs are converging with brain architecture to some (very
limited) extent.

  Regarding (2), this is a question that has occupied a great deal
of this Newsgroup's bandwidth.  My personal opinion is that minds
and computer processes are the same *kind* of thing; that no
currently existing program can create anything with more than
the slightest resemblence to a human mind; but that future
programs, probably within the next twenty years, will be able
to do a lot better.  I think the greatest obstacle is our
lack of understanding, in computational terms, of the human
mind.  To the extent that we understand it, we can duplicate
it on computer programs.

	-- Bill


