From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!tdatirv!sarima Tue May 12 15:49:29 EDT 1992
Article 5460 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Systems Reply I (repost perhaps)
Message-ID: <12@tdatirv.UUCP>
Date: 6 May 92 19:20:21 GMT
References: <6637@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992May1.185606.31991@mp.cs.niu.edu> <6648@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992May4.181702.13708@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Reply-To: sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Teradata Corp., Irvine
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In article <1992May4.181702.13708@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
|  Would the computer's behavior show that it had been turned off?  Only in
|the sensed that it would not be aware of events that occurred while it was
|turned off.  This need not be much different from a person who went into
|a brief coma, then on recovery was unaware that there had been any
|interruption of consciousness.

And if anyine should doubt that this is possible, check out some studies
on insomnia.  An insomniac will generally claim 'I have been awake the
whole time', but external monitoring will show he has been slipping in and
out of sleep.

What has happened?  Exactly what Neil was talking about, without any external
cues the insomniac has no way of judging passing of time, and so is totally
unaware of the time spent asleep.

I can vouch for this, since I tend to insomnia, and I used to think I stayed
awake continuously, but careful observation has concinced me I do not.
[Getting up and looking at the clock, noticing that my thought chain has
been interrupted, ... - actually it was counting 'sheep' and losing count
that first caused me to notice this]
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uunet!tdatirv!sarima				(Stanley Friesen)


