Could it be so focused and so selfish on finding a solution to this riddle,
that it may explain Dizzard's malnourished state when they found him?
In other words, the mind detached itself so far from the body in the
ultimate quest to find the solution to the problem, that all of the basic
physiological needs that we normally find to be automatic with our bodies
become ignored since in theory, the mind and body are two separate,
autonomous entities.
I'm sure all of us at one point or another have been so focused on getting
something done, we find our stomachs growling so fiercly or find our mouths
so dry and we don't notice until the task is complete.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David McKay" <ntkernl@yahoo.ca>
To: "Anil Pasricha" <cell@yorku.ca>; "Katherine Loo" <in_limbo@yorku.ca>
Cc: <math3500@mathstat.yorku.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2004 10:11 PM
Subject: Re: The Riddle and Loops
> Katherine, Anil,
>
> I thought of the mind gaining another level of
> consciousness as one way to see how the mind could
> take the body prisoner -- give me what I want and
> nobody gets hurt sort of threat! It gets extremely
> selfish about solving the riddle. As Lucas pointed
> out in his essay from something that Turing described
> as a super-critical state that had not been seen yet.
>
>
> "When we increase the complexity of our machines there
> may, perhaps, be surprises in store for us. He draws a
> parallel with a fission pile. Below a certain
> "critical" size, nothing much happens: but above the
> critical size, the sparks begin to fly. So too,
> perhaps, with brains and machines."
>
> The mind gets greedy and takes all steps necessary to
> remain focused on a solution to the riddle. Hence
> the name Autotomy. If it means that it is going in
> infinite loops then so be it. Once it crosses this
> hypothetical tipping point, it will look the same to
> me as the Blue Screen of Death on a Windows machine.
> It's virtually DEAD!
>
> /David XXXX76573
>
>
>
> --- Anil Pasricha <cell@yorku.ca> wrote:
>> Katherine,
>>
>>
>> From the reading (as far as I understood) the riddle
>> was just that--
>> a Godelian-type statement-- which exlpoited a flaw
>> in the way the humans
>> processed information. And as a result they lapsed
>> into a coma.
>>
>> In that world, they finally found one (the riddle)
>> that exploited a flaw in
>> the human thought process causing them to jump into
>> one infinite loop after
>> another (maybe). Perhaps it was a self-referential
>> statement-- which was
>> refering to many other referential statements. And
>> by the time the person
>> was into the core of the riddle, they were too far
>> lost in this endless
>> looping.
>>
>> Just a thought.
>>
>>
>>
>> Quoting Katherine Loo <in_limbo@yorku.ca>:
>>
>> > I am not really convinced that the comas were
>> induced because people fell
>> > into
>> > a neverending loop that led information or
>> processing overload.
>> >
>> > If the cause of the coma was too much information,
>> then this would imply that
>> >
>> > the brain has a limited capacity. Therefore,
>> anyone who reads or studies too
>> >
>> > much would fall into comas.
>> > If the coma were caused by a Godelian-type
>> statement that caused the person
>> > to
>> > enter a loop, then why could the person not decide
>> to leave the loop? In
>> > Hofstadter's reading, he says that when we find
>> ourselves contemplating
>> > sentences like "Thiss sentence contains threee
>> errors" we eventually tire of
>> >
>> > the confusion and jump out of the loop. What
>> about the Riddle would make one
>> >
>> > stay in the loop forever?
>> >
>> > =Katherine Loo=
>> >
>>
> ___________________________________________________________________
>> > This message was sent to the math3500 discussion
>> list by Katherine Loo
>> > <in_limbo@yorku.ca> .
>> >
>>
>>
>>
> ___________________________________________________________________
>> This message was sent to the math3500 discussion
>> list by Anil Pasricha <cell@yorku.ca> .
>>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
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> ___________________________________________________________________
> This message was sent to the math3500 discussion list by David McKay
> <ntkernl@yahoo.ca> .
>
___________________________________________________________________
This message was sent to the math3500 discussion list by "Jason Dong" <kinezo@yorku.ca> .
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