[ExI] The digital nature of brains

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Sat Jan 23 16:44:37 UTC 2010


On 1/23/2010 8:54 AM, Gordon Swobe wrote:

> You scan an analog thermostat and observe the resulting simulation on your computer. You will not see a real digital thermostat appear on your computer screen. Instead you will see a digital simulation of a non-digital object.

Wrong. You see a digital representation of some aspects of the 
computer--perhaps its surface, perhaps some of its innards (for various 
values of "scan"). An emulation, by definition, is something that 
reproduces the effectivity of the original, not just its superficial 
appearance.

Damien Broderick



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