Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!utnut!utgpu!pindor
From: pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Strong AI and consciousness
Message-ID: <D002DH.6r7@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCC Public Access
References: <vlsi_libCzHB5I.Fn7@netcom.com> <3aj4a9$9ct@mp.cs.niu.edu> <CzsJoI.EJs@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca> <1994Nov28.171355.27765@oxvaxd>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 1994 22:56:04 GMT
Lines: 33

In article <1994Nov28.171355.27765@oxvaxd>,  <econrpae@vax.oxford.ac.uk> wrote:
.......
>
>I don't, however, see why this shows that the notion of "running a program" is
>slippery or subjective. Wouldn't you agree that the rock cannot be thought of
>as running a chess-playing program? It certainly isn't running Microsoft Word,
>either. 
>
>Why does the fact that the rock is running a very simple program show that the
>notion of "running a program" is inherently slippery? 
>                                               
Because it shows that whether something is "running a program" is a matter of
looking at proceses taking place, involving an object under discussion. There
is nothing which differentiates between "running a program" and just 
undergoing physical changes everything in the universe undergoes (Panta Rei).
"Running a program" in general is not something special that takes place in 
some cases and does not in other cases. It is a matter of deliberately choosing 
a certain interpretation, it is not something we _have_ to recognize, it is not
a "matter of fact". We have designed a device in such a way, set up internal
electrical charges and magnetisations in a very specific way so that it reacts
in a specific way to a specific physical stimulation (input). Consequently 
we say taht it "runs a program" meaning the processes go the way we have 
intended them to go, but this is _our_ designation.

Andrzej



-- 
Andrzej Pindor                        The foolish reject what they see and 
University of Toronto                 not what they think; the wise reject
Instructional and Research Computing  what they think and not what they see.
pindor@gpu.utcc.utoronto.ca                           Huang Po
