From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!aukuni.ac.nz!kcbbs!nacjack!codewks!system Mon Nov  9 09:36:23 EST 1992
Article 7474 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Brain and Mind (was: Logic and God)
Message-ID: <aZiLTB1w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>
>From: system@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall)
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 92 17:12:21 NZST
References: <1992Oct29.180815.16901@news.media.mit.edu>
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minsky@media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky) writes:

> In article <5w1DTB3w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz> system@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.n
> >Hmmm. Just a passing comment. If life is based PURELY on chemical 
> >reactions, then home come no one has created life in a test tube yet?
> >I expect your answer will be a form of "have patience". Hmmm....
> 
> 
> Christ, Wayne, what's wrong with patience.  But perhaps this
> counterexample will help you.  I presume that you believe that the
> Great Pyramids were built by divine intervention or by superhuman
> aliens.  Your critics maintain that certain techniques for quarrying
> and transporting limestone would suffice.  You then reply that if this
> were true, then  how come no one has created any new pyramids
> recently?  Surely the argument that this would be expensive and
> time-consuming is no answer.

Your presumption is incorrect, because your analogy is false. I can 
observe people contrsucting model pyramids; I can see the techniques 
that were used employed today; there is no qualitative differences, 
only quantitative differences.

But for life, I don't see that the construction of amino acid chains is 
of the same order. I perceive a quantitative distinction between our 
current understanding of life as purely chemical reactions MAY be 
present. That is, I was questioning how deep our understanding of life 
as purely a chemical reaction is, insofaras this was being compared to 
the expected progress towards understanding consciousness for the 
purposes of duplicating it in a testtube/laboratory/computer.

I assert nothing. I question everything.

Or do I?

-- 
  Wayne McDougall, BCNU
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