Hi John,
I may have picked up the humor from some high school hungarian friends
in Montreal 1957-1960 just after the hungarian revolution. There were
amongst them some of the most dry-witted people I have ever met.
George
John M wrote:
>George:
>
>I enjoyed your wits, in Hungarian we call that
>"to chase one's brain".
>I am also happy that you use "sane" instead of
>"normal" because the "norm" is insane.
>
>Please do not cut this line (style) of yours!
>
>John Mikes
>
>--- George Levy <glevy.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>
>
>
>>Bruno Marchal wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>Le 13-août-06, à 23:48, George Levy a écrit :
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>"I think" also implies the concept of sanity.
>>>>
>>>>
>>Unless you assume the
>>
>>
>>>>first step "I think" and that you are sane, you
>>>>
>>>>
>>can't take any rational
>>
>>
>>>>and conscious second step and have any rational
>>>>
>>>>
>>and conscious thought
>>
>>
>>>>process. You wouldn't be able to hold any rational
>>>>
>>>>
>>discussion. Inherent
>>
>>
>>>>in any computational process is the concept of
>>>>
>>>>
>>sanity. Maybe this is
>>
>>
>>>>what Bruno refers to as "sane machine."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>All right. The point will be that all machine
>>>
>>>
>>strongly-believing or
>>
>>
>>>communicating or proving their own sanity will
>>>
>>>
>>appear to be (from
>>
>>
>>>purely number-theoretical reasons) insane and even
>>>
>>>
>>inconsistent. Note
>>
>>
>>>that machines communicating that they are *insane*
>>>
>>>
>>(instead of sane)
>>
>>
>>>*are* insane, but remains consistent.
>>>This should please crazy John Mikes :)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> This only proves that a "sane" machine cannot be
>>sure that it thinks
>>correctly.
>>
>>So the sane machine would say: "I think but, since I
>>may be insane, I
>>am not sure if I am."
>>Only the insane machine would positively assert "I
>>think therefore I am!"
>>So we know now where Descartes belongs: in an insane
>>asylum, so do most
>>philosophers, religious leaders and politicians.
>>Some mathematicians may
>>be exempt, but only if they don't claim that Godel
>>is right!
>>Don't quote me!
>>
>>George
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Tue Aug 15 2006 - 23:23:03 PDT