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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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- Katherine Loo <in_limbo@yorku.ca> wrote:
> 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!)
>
>
>
___________________________________________________________________
> This message was sent to the math3500 discussion
> list by Katherine Loo <in_limbo@yorku.ca> .
>
______________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________
This message was sent to the math3500 discussion list by David McKay <ntkernl@yahoo.ca> .
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