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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Is the mind/brain deterministic?
Message-ID: <kovskyCz0B4G.Aqr@netcom.com>
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References: <kovskyCyxKCo.Hv5@netcom.com> <39oobc$iia@cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 1994 15:31:28 GMT
Lines: 25

>Hans Moravec <hpm@cs.cmu.edu> wrote (quoting from me)
>
>> ... Moreover, I believe that it is possible to develop a device
>>that has both consciousness and freedom; and AI is paving the way.  The
>>device will not, however, be a machine.  My prediction is that such a
>>device will be developed from neural networks operating "on the edge of
>>chaos." 

>Why would that not consider that a machine?  

	There are devices that are not machines:  the potter's kiln, the 
cook's overn, the metallurgist's smelter.  None of these is a machine.  
My view is that the watchword of artificial intelligence should be 
"responsiveness," not "representation."  If something big is coming at 
you, it's better to jump in any direction than to sit around figuring 
which way to jump.  I see the brain as a system balanced "on the edge" 
where a relatively minor stimulus can produce a big result.  Like an 
alloy maintained in a smelter on the edge of a phase change.


-- 

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    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/freeedom
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