From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!news2me.ebay.sun.com!exodus.Eng.Sun.COM!orfeo.Eng.Sun.COM!silber Thu Apr 30 15:22:22 EDT 1992
Article 5225 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: silber@orfeo.Eng.Sun.COM (Eric Silber)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Educating Searle and Zeleny
Date: 23 Apr 1992 20:17:22 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca.
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <kve6qiINNmto@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM>
References: <1992Apr22.145058.10183@cs.yale.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: orfeo
Keywords: virtual,processes,Searle

In article <1992Apr22.145058.10183@cs.yale.edu> mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott) writes:
>...
>Okay.  The key fact that Searle types overlook is the importance of
>abstract entities in computers.  Almost all of the entities one takes
>for granted in dealing with computers exist only "virtually."  A
>virtual entity is one that exists because some ensemble of programs
>behave as if it existed. ...
>... for them to be effective, there must be programs
>that read the data structures and interpret them in the intended way.
...
>
>A key type of virtual entity is a process, or thread of control.  It
                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>is almost always misleading to talk about a computer doing something,
>because most of what computers do is mediated by processes.  ....
...
>The reason it is relevant to Searle is
                              ^^^^^^
>that if he knew about this stuff, he would realize that the Chinese
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>Room argument has to be rephrased in terms of processes, not
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>processors.  
 ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
 YES! And another distinction too: there is a difference
 between a 'program' and a 'running instance ' of that program in
 the context of a process.  Certainly a 'program' per se will
 never be conscious of anything, whereas a running-instance of 
 some program might be.




