[ExI] Meaningless Symbols.

[Ben Zaiboc]

Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Of course, there
> remains ... the possibility,
> however unlikely, that the brain is not computable.


I'm at a loss to understand this.  On the face of it, it seems to be a claim that brains do not and cannot exist, but that can't be what you mean.

Everything that exists has been 'computed'  Everything is made of fundamental units that have been combined according to a set of rules.  

When we talk about making simulations we are just talking about moving this process to a different kind of fundamental unit, and discovering then applying the relevant set of rules.  Thus we create models of things and processes, re-creating them on a different level of reality.

If any aspect of a thing or process is not captured in the model, it means the model is not fine-grained enough, not extensive enough, or uses the wrong rules.  All these things are fixable, at least in principle.

So what does it mean to say that something is 'not computable', if not that it's impossible?


Ben Zaiboc