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Article 1810 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Dennett on Edelman--what a total loss
Message-ID: <5765@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 2 Dec 91 21:18:42 GMT
References: <5743@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1991Nov29.040039.19327@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <5757@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1991Nov29.195200.8911@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 22

In article <1991Nov29.195200.8911@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>In article <5757@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>>In article <1991Nov29.040039.19327@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:
>
>>>Indeed.  I agree with this claim myself.  But it this is a very
>>>different claim from the claim that "the brain is a Turing Machine".
>>
>>Actually, it's pretty similar.  No one claims the brain is
>>literally a TM, that it has a tape for example.
>
>On the other hand, some AI opponents have been very concerned to refute
>the claim.  e.g. see Edelman, TRP p. 29:

>  subjective experiences. ... An analysis of both ecological and
>  environmental variation, and of the categorization procedures of
>  animals and humans, makes it highly unlikely that the world
>  (physical and social) can function as a tape for a Turing Machine.

It looks to me like he might be using "tape" metaphorically,
but I am nonetheless astonished that anyone would compare the
world to a TT tape.  It's not an argument I recall any other
AI opponent making.


