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This is highly relevant to my interests. Also, looks to be the philosophy of intelligence, not just computer science. Highlights from the table of contents: 9
by polakallen 11y ago
This is highly relevant to my interests. Also, looks to be the philosophy of intelligence, not just computer science.
Highlights from the table of contents:
9.3 John Searle: Anything Is a Computer . . . . . 360
9.3.5 Everything Is a Computer . . . . . . . . . . 367
9.7 What Else Might Be a Computer? . . . . . . . .375
9.7.1 Is a Brain a Computer? . . . . . . . . . . . .376
9.7.2 Is the Universe a Computer? . . . . . . . . . 377
Spoilers: you might be a computer, inside a computer.
- ahelwer 11y agoSounds profound until you get into actually defining what a computer is. Re the computational theory of mind: "A “computational theory of the mind” is along the same lines as having “a computational theory of the weather”, in which the earth is seen as a computer and the weather what it computes. It’s a metaphor that gives the illusion of understanding, without telling us whether tomorrow will rain or not — akin to using élan vital to “explain” life or scansoriality to “explain” propensity to climbing." http://researchblogs.cs.bham.ac.uk/thelablunch/2015/07/what-things-compute/ http://researchblogs.cs.bham.ac.uk/thelablunch/2015/07/what-...
- mtdewcmu 11y ago"such broad definitions can quickly degenerate into pancomputationalism: everything computes. And, if everything computes, computation is an uninteresting concept. The brain computes, but so does a piece of wood. Computation is simply another word for behaviour subject to (natural) laws. The Universe is a big computer, computing its own future — grand but somewhat vacuous." - nice quote from the link you posted.