Katherine,
You made an excellent point that I think helped steer
my mind about what happened in the Riddle Story.
"I think the answer lies in the fact that the Riddle
must be understood for it to take effect. So whatever
IS happening, happens inside the mind."
I forgot to include in my other blurb about the answer
to the riddle being done without using a computer.
Dizzard worked on the Autotomy project which by it's
nature must have included a proof or sequence of
instructions to follow in order to attain a level
where your brain could gain another level of
consciiousness and get caught up in itself. Readers
from many other disciplines and backgrounds of science
and art were likely intrigued by the Autotomy research
and understood the work to the extent they succumbed
to the consequences ... OR ... enjoyed the benefits.
It depends on your basis of what part got left behind
as a sacrifice to save the other part. The Brain or
the Body! I'll leave that up to someone else.
David McKay XXXX76573
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Hi,
I found Jason D.'s hypothesis to be very interesting,
but I am not sure of its
validity as an answer to the cause of the Riddle.
I doubt anyone, no matter how embarassed, would be
willing to be put in a coma
(and then die) just because they lost to a computer.
More notably are the
undergrad students who succumbed to the coma during a
lecture of an automata
theory course. There is no 'shame' for a student to
not understand, so why
would they willfully be put in a coma? Also, in some
of the Riddle coma
cases, no computers were involved at all, so there was
no machine to put
anyone in a trance-like situation.
I think the answer lies in the fact that the Riddle
must be understood for it
to take effect. So whatever IS happening, happens
inside the mind.
=Katherine Loo=
Quoting Jason Dong <kinezo@yorku.ca>:
> Hi class,
>
> So we're supposed to come up with a hypothetical
explanation of what happened
> with this "riddle" that's been killing everyone. I
wasn't sure what other
> discussion for this part of the course was supposed
to happen..
>
> Here's an idea (sorry for the length)
>
> So Dizzard is sitting in front of his computer
embroiled in an exchange of
> mental mudslinging whereby he and the computer
challenge each other to prove
> statements to be true in order to determine whether
or not the computer's and
> Dizzard's thought patterns are the same. The only
rule was that the
> statements had to be provable and true.
>
> You might say it would be a somewhat similar
parallel to Kasparov and Deep
> Blue. Dizzard, being a falliable human being, comes
up with a brilliant idea
> of introducing a self referential paradox -- a
Godelian type statement that
> might outfox the computer.
>
> So he types it in but little does he know the
computer has been programmed
> not only to recognize a Godelian statement (refering
to Lucas' argument about
> standardizing the creation of a Godelian formula)
being processed, but also
> provide a response saying the point of the game was
not to see who's "mind"
> was more superior, but whether or not their thinking
was the same. Since the
> Godel statement was not provable, Dizzard lost and
could not take the
> embarassment of losing to a machine so he instructed
the computer to induce
> him into a trance-like state so nobody could learn
of his "shame".
>
> All those who came in contact with the computer were
obviously so inticed
> with why Dizzard died each engaged in this game and
each made the same
> mistake as Dizzard trying to assert their
superiority over this machine. So,
> each followed the route of Dizzard by succumbing to
the trance-like coma.
>
> It surely sounds like a voodoo-ish story to tell
over the campfire (yeah
> right!)
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