From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!wupost!waikato.ac.nz!aukuni.ac.nz!kcbbs!nacjack!codewks!system Tue Nov 24 10:52:33 EST 1992
Article 7687 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Xref: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca comp.ai.philosophy:7687 sci.logic:2369
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Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,sci.logic
Subject: Re: Self-Reference and Paradox (was Re: Human intelligence...)
Message-ID: <62JeuB2w165w@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz>
>From: system@CODEWKS.nacjack.gen.nz (Wayne McDougall)
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 09:26:04 NZST
References: <1992Nov15.060331.3162@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: The Code Works Limited, PO Box 10 155, Auckland, New Zealand
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pratt@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Vaughan R. Pratt) writes:

> In article <1992Nov14.151559.13227@oracorp.com> daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCu
> 
> The simplest instance of the proposal arises when one asks why the
> universe does not blink out when the output of an inverter is connected
> back to its input.  The answer, at least for those inverters that come
> in little plastic sixpacks with 14 pins, is that their inputs and
> outputs quickly reach a compromise in the neighborhood of 2.5 volts
> before the big bang has had much of a chance to get under way.  Any
> explanation of this behavior must clearly go beyond just the two truth
> values 0 volts and 5 volts appearing in the explanation of the normal
> behavior of inverters.
> 
I don't know about the Big Bang, but has anyone else heard of 
the apocryphal story of an early computer avec valves et al, which was 
inadvertently given a similar problem, and almost shook itself to death 
as it oscillated from true to false.

-- 
  Wayne McDougall, BCNU
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