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Article 4867 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@boucher.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: A rock implements every FSA
Message-ID: <1992Apr1.153426.10566@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 1 Apr 92 20:34:24 GMT
References: <1992Mar30.064140.8996@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <1992Mar30.231418.10488@husc3.harvard.edu> <45844@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Organization: Dept. of Math, Harvard Univ.
Lines: 51
Nntp-Posting-Host: boucher.harvard.edu

In article <45844@dime.cs.umass.edu> 
orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke) writes:

>In article <1992Mar30.231418.10488@husc3.harvard.edu> 
>zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:

MZ:
>>   ..., and printing and erasing what it is 
>>   supposed to print and erase when it is in a given state and scanning 
>>   a given symbol)
>>
>>Now, if the last anaphoric pronoun were meant to refer to the machine with
>>description D, the theorem proved earlier would have nothing to do with
>>this machine.  Since I know Putnam not to be an idiot, I concluded that it
>>referred to the object being modelled, and the machine with description D
>>was meant to satisfy the theorem's constraints.  

JO'R:
>	This is exactly how I interpreted it upon first reading, mentioning
>in an old post that D acts as if it "hallucinated" the input.  But David
>Chalmers questioned my interpretation, and after reading it several times
>now, I think that Putnam means D to have I/O that mirrors S's I/O.  I hesitate
>to take sides in this increasingly vitriolic exchange, but I think David
>is right on this point.  But you are right in that the theorem has nothing
>to do with D!

I just saw Putnam, and will have to reserve judgment on the meaning of the
above passage until he has a chance to respond to my questions.  Regardless
of his preferred interpretation of his past self's writings, I think that
my argument still goes through.  As for vitriol, I wish your tolerance for
it were higher, as the present amount seems quite modest in comparison to a
run-of-the-mill academic dispute.  Just look into the history of astronomy
or evolutionary biology...

JO'R
>	Only one point have we collectively established beyond a shadow
>of a doubt:  the "Discussion" in this Appendix is very poorly written!

No comment.

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: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
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