Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife,comp.ai.philosophy,comp.ai,alt.consciousness
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!satisfied.elf.com!news.mathworks.com!udel!princeton!flagstaff.princeton.edu!schechtr
From: schechtr@flagstaff.princeton.edu (Joshua B. Schechter)
Subject: Re: Thought Question
Message-ID: <1995Jan12.022935.26572@Princeton.EDU>
Originator: news@hedgehog.Princeton.EDU
Sender: news@Princeton.EDU (USENET News System)
Nntp-Posting-Host: flagstaff.princeton.edu
Organization: Princeton University
References: <3eh97p$8oh@agate.berkeley.edu> <1995Jan5.190243.14491@galiOrganization: Department of Scocial Science <sa209.104@utb.shv.hb.se>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 1995 02:29:35 GMT
Lines: 26
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.alife:1729 comp.ai.philosophy:24562 comp.ai:26393

In article <sa209.104@utb.shv.hb.se> sa209@utb.shv.hb.se (Claes Andersson) writes:
> It's obviouss that a computer and a brain don't work in the same way. A 
>computer is mainly serial while a brain is very paralell. But, an airplane 
>and a computer isn't the same thing either but still, no one argues about 
>how simillar an airplane and a computer are, they just accept that it is 
>very posible to simulate an airplane fairly good with a computer. Of course, 
>you can't go anywhere geographically with a simulated airplane since it 
>exist in a simulated universe. A brain can be simulated with a computer, no 
>doubt, but they are not very simillar. A brain is superior to a computer in 
>fuzzy logic, recognition, etc. but far inferior in iterative and 
>mathematical tasks. But what use would we have had for the computer in 
>technical and administrative tasks else? But, a computer can evidently 
>simulate paralellism, with a great speed loss, but still it can simulate a 
>computer. A brain will have a harder time trying to simulate a computer.

I believe the issue is not whether or not a computer can simulate a
brain. It seems that a majority of people here seem to agree (whether
or not they are correct) that a computer can simulate a brain. The
hardware of a brain seems to be accepted to be a type of universal
turing machine and as such, can be simulated (as soon as it is
understood) by any other turing machine.

The issue seems more to be "Can a simulation of a brain think?"
And, of course, this brings up the question of what we mean by thinking...


