If you copy a machine, you will have transferred i...

2010-11-16T10:17:42.985-08:00

If you copy a machine, you will have transferred its functionality from one set of atoms to another. I don't know what could be more straightforward.

> People already have these like... > struct...

2010-11-01T11:21:08.310-07:00

> People already have these like...
> structures of ideas built up,
> where either you believe one
> thing or another, with no room
> for anything in between. Or
> not in between but just totally
> outside the paradigm they have
> in their heads comprised of two
> diametrically opposed ideological
> positions.

From George Lakoff's review of _What Are Numbers Really?
A Cerebral Basis for Number Sense_ by Stanislas Dehaene
http://www.edge.org/discourse/dehaene_numbers.html#lakoff

"Dehaene's work is also very bad news for the theory of mind defended in Pinker's _How The Mind Works_ (pp. 24-25), namely, functionalism, or the Computer Program Theory of Mind. Functionalism, first formulated by philosopher Hilary Putnam and since repudiated by him, is the theory that all aspects of mind can be characterized adequately without looking at the brain, as if the mind worked via the manipulation of abstract formal symbols. This is like a computer program designed independent of any particular hardware, but which happened to be capable of running on the brain's wetware. This computer-program mind is not shaped by the details of the brain.

But if Dehaene is right, the brain shapes and defines the concept of number in the most fundamental way. This is the opposite of what is claimed by the Computer Program Theory of Mind, namely, that the concept of number is part of a computer program that is not shaped or determined by the peculiarities of the physical brain at all and that we can know everything about number without knowing anything about the brain.

Challenging the Computer Program Theory of Mind is not a small matter. Pinker calls it 'one of the great ideas in intellectual history' and 'indispensable' to an understanding of mind. Any time you hear someone talking about 'the mind's software' that can be run on 'the brain's hardware,' you are in the presence of the Computer Program Theory.

Dehaene is by no means alone is his implicit rejection of the Computer Program Theory. Distinguished figures in neuroscience have rejected it (e.g., Antonio Damasio, Gerald Edelman, Patricia Churchland). Even among computer scientists, connectionism presents a contrasting view. . .

And the beat goes on. ;->

Oki: Heh indeed. I had no idea it was going to do ...

2010-10-30T15:29:16.474-07:00

Oki: Heh indeed. I had no idea it was going to do that (the "m m m" pronunciation of "Mmmm.") until I played the video. I thought about going back and redoing those bits but then I decided that for all I know, a robot made out of obsolete hardware might very well pronounce certain things oddly. I've played with a number of text-to-speech engines (on Windows, in Linux, and on the ipod touch) and all of them seem to have different pronunciation quirks.

heh - I love the Mmm pronunciation. I had to look...

2010-10-30T14:47:53.478-07:00

heh - I love the Mmm pronunciation. I had to look at the transcript for that one.

Comments on Existence is Wonderful: The Impending Robot Takeover, Part 2 (Video)

If you copy a machine, you will have transferred i...

> People already have these like... > struct...

Oki: Heh indeed. I had no idea it was going to do ...

heh - I love the Mmm pronunciation. I had to look...