Re: Maudlin's Demon (Argument)

From: David Nyman <david.nyman.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:38:00 -0000

jamikes.domain.name.hidden wrote:

> > >In other words, a 'computation' can be
> > > anything I say it is (cf. Hofstadter for some particularly egregious
> > > examples).
> >
> David, could you give us 'some' of these, or at least an URL to find such?

John

I was thinking of various examples in 'Godel, Escher, Bach', and it's
years since I read it. Here's a URL I just Googled that may be
relevant:

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/6100/geb.html

>From memory, Hofstadter decribes 'implementations' of computations that
involve the detailed behaviour of anthills, and worse yet, detailed
descriptions of 'Einstein's Brain' listed in a book that you can
supposedly ask questions and receive answers! Trouble is, Hofstadter is
such a brilliantly witty and creative writer that I could never be
completely sure whether he was deliberately torturing your credulity by
putting these forward as tongue-in-cheek reductios (like Schroedinger
with his cat apparently) or whether he was actually serious. I'll have
to re-read the book.

David

> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: Re: Maudlin's Demon (Argument)
> (Brent's quote):
> > David Nyman wrote:
> (I skip the discussion...)
> >
> > >In other words, a 'computation' can be
> > > anything I say it is (cf. Hofstadter for some particularly egregious
> > > examples).
> >
> David, could you give us 'some' of these, or at least an URL to find such?
>
> John M


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Received on Thu Oct 05 2006 - 10:38:18 PDT

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