Jut to throw in my two cents for this discussion:
A hypothetical explanation of what is happening in Cherniak's story is
an observer of the Riddle, "when [s\he] sees 'If p then q' and p, and so
cannot stop [himself\herself] from concluding, q where q is the
Riddle."-Cherniak So the human mind enters into a sort of recursive
loop, that does not break itself down but rather spirals on infinitely
where when q is reached the loop begins again and again ... (this
reminded me of that scene from Dude Where's My Car -> And then? NO AND
THEN. And Then? ... - sorry ... :) Right, umm, so the mind cannot deal
with the Riddle in its complete form which is why that survivor who
didn't understand the Riddle survived. Lukas, sites one of Turing's
arguments that in systems a level of complexity causes unexpected
behavior, like a fission pile. So, understanding the riddle, like a
fission pile, is only harmful or interesting as whole or past a certain
lvl of complexity.
Ow and here's a quote I came across the other day thought it was funny
myself:
"Asking whether a machine can think, is like asking whether a submarine
swims."
-Peter
-- ==================================== Peter ThiessenE-mail: quelance@yorku.ca ====================================
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