2009/1/14 Brent Meeker <meekerdb.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
> However a Turing machine is not just a set of states, it also requires a
> set of transition rules. So in the same abstract way that the integers
> are ordered by "succession" the computational states of a Turing machine
> are ordered. Whether just abstract rules, without implementation, are
> sufficient isn't clear to me.
In an actual physical computer the transition rules are represented by
the causal links between the states, so that a particular input will
reliably give rise to a particular output. But I return to my question
about what would happen if there were a discontinuity in a sequence of
states, so that s1 to s10 on m1 are causally linked, s11 to s20 on m2
are causally linked, but there is no link between m1 and m2, i.e. m2
just happens to start in s11 accidentally. Assuming that s1 to s20
occurring in a single machine results is a few moments of
consciousness (which is to say, assuming that computationalism is
true), what would happen if the sequence is broken in the way just
described?
--
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Wed Jan 14 2009 - 04:11:59 PST