IUBio

Rickert on embedded computation (was re: science of consciousness.)

Patrick Juola patrick at gryphon.psych.ox.ac.uk
Thu Apr 30 03:53:26 EST 1998


In article <6i7h70$gij at ux.cs.niu.edu> rickert at cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>andersw+ at pitt.edu (Anders N Weinstein) writes:
>>If you are including "analog" computation, that may be true.
>
>There are things that are being done by the computer on my desk that
>I could not map into a Turing machine.
>
>I'm not talking 'analog'.  My concern is with interaction.  A Turing
>machine is not interactive.  A person is, and the computer on my desk
>is.

I'm not sure that you could be much more incorrect if you tried.  In
point of fact, the interactivity not only can be, but *IS* mapped
into a Turing machine (via the RAM formalism, via the implementation
as a large memory machine).

Your CPU, for example, doesn't manipulate the video screen
directly -- instead it puts a specific set of symbols to a
specific bit of tape area, and the video hardware performs the
mapping.

	-kitten



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