John Mikes writes (quoting SP):
> you wrote: (excerpt):> <...The simplest explanation that comes to mind is that a brain or computer > can interact with its environment, and it is only those computations which > interact with their environment of which we can be aware. A rock may be > implementing all sorts of computations, including self-aware ones, but as > far as communicating with it goes, its "mind" is effectively segregated in a > separate, solipsistic universe. ...<> > My old complaint about "all possible":> the fact that WE cannot communicate with a rock and do not understand their > (rocky)mind is no proof. Why do you think at all that a rock would > 'compute'? Self-awareness? all these are OUR interpretations for OUR > immaging in Our kind of mind about the world WE think about in OUR logic.> We may concentrate on our ways but that does not deny other ways outside of > the domain of our comprehension.> We don't even communicate with 'thinking' animals!
The fact that we don't know about something does not mean that it isn't so, but that isn't the same as saying that we should believe, or even seriously entertain the possibility, that it is so. Suppose I propose that on the planet Pluto there is a rock 10 metres in diameter, perfectly spherical to a tolerance of 1 millimetre. Certainly, such a thing is physically possible, and no-one can tell me that they know for sure no such rock exists, but does that mean that my proposal should be taken seriously? We need to have some positive reason for believing something; the mere fact that it is not impossible is not enough.
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Thu Jul 20 2006 - 20:44:39 PDT