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From: gyro@netcom.com (Scott L. Burson)
Subject: Minsky's new article
Message-ID: <gyroCyw4Lu.9r9@netcom.com>
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References: <3997dq$857@ecom2.ecn.bgu.edu> <39al9e$beq@coli-gate.coli.uni-sb.de> <push-0511942335420001@mind.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 09:20:18 GMT
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In article <push-0511942335420001@mind.mit.edu> push@mit.edu (Pushpinder Singh) writes:
>In article <39al9e$beq@coli-gate.coli.uni-sb.de>, sean@mpi-sb.mpg.de (Sean
>Matthews) wrote:
>
>> Everyone is getting so worked up about Penrose's new book.  But, without
>> having read it (though having read `The Emperor's New Mind' and disagreed
>> with it), I suspect that in terms of silliness it does not come close to
>> what Minsky writes in the October Scientific American, which I have just
>> read.
>
>It seems to me that Minsky's tone was appropriate for such a popular forum.  

Ironically, and apropos of my previous message, it occurs to me that SciAm has
its editorial head quite firmly in the mechanistic paradigm and that Marvin's
article is therefore quite a natural for it.

>The average layman that reads Scientific American likely has a basic 
>understanding of physics, biology, and chemistry, but the level of 
>confusion over what minds are, well, boggles the mind.  Minsky would need 
>more than just the few pages alloted him to undo the damage of souls, 
>spirits, free will, and all such "single self" fallacies.

"Damage"?  Ah well.  It's as I said: very little communication seems to take
place across the gulf that separates us.

Do you really think you don't have free will?  I'm just curious...

>So instead he chose to write about ideas that would hopefully get people 
>interested in the field, and that would in turn cause them to learn more 
>about it themselves.

Well, one need not think that the soul is a "fallacy" to think that making
computers more useful is an enjoyable challenge.

>Eric Drexler was a student of Minsky's.  So were Danny Hillis, Gerry 
>Sussman, Patrick Winston, and many other brilliant and original thinkers.  

Yeah, well, so was I (though he might want to disavow me at this point :-).

-- Scott

