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Article 4540 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: santas@inf.ethz.ch (Philip Santas)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Infinite Minds?
Message-ID: <1992Mar17.211601.18028@neptune.inf.ethz.ch>
Date: 17 Mar 92 21:16:01 GMT
References: <1992Mar11.214547.28524@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> <1992Mar16.165050.4693@cs.ucf.edu>
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In article <1992Mar16.165050.4693@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes:
>In article <1992Mar11.214547.28524@neptune.inf.ethz.ch> santas@inf.ethz.ch
>(Philip Santas) writes:
>|
>| There is evidence that supports the digital functioning, and I do
>| not see any reason why we should rush to abandon this theory BEFORE we
>| get evidence for the contrary.
>|
>I am from the school that  we don't really understand something until we can
>build it (maybe not even then).  When speech recognition and machine vision
>reach human (animal even) levels of competence using purely digital techniques,
>then I will accede that there is no need for invoking quantum physics (or
>Sheldrake's morphogenetic fields, or the soul or ...) to explain the
>functioning of the brain.

We have not even defined what understanding is...

It is true thta much of this debate is based on the philosophical
and cultural background of each one of us.

But systems like cinema, TV, CDs and whatever, are based on the attribute
of our neural system to behave digitally. 

Of course there are some who simply close their eyes and expose their 
prejudices, and wonder if flying exists before birds in order to prove
that airplanes do not actually fly... 

On the other hand, there are scientists and engineers who try to accomplish 
something with open mind, free from dogmatic beliefs,
like Negroponte  in MIT, who is working towards squezing the whole work of 
Bach into a single CD!

>Until that day comes, it remains a _philosophical_ possiblity that the brain
>does not function digitally.  The digital functioning model is the most recent
>round in a debate that starts with the Greeks.  While its successes are
>suggestive, the model is not universally accepted, and many grow tired of
>waiting for conclusive evidence against its competitors.

Humanity was waiting for 1000s of years for the day that a human could 
(artificially) fly. What is the history of AI?

>But aren't CDs wonderful!

Philosophy is also wonderful, since it created scientificism...

Philip Santas

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email: santas@inf.ethz.ch				 Philip Santas
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