[ExI] The digital nature of brains

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Sat, 1/23/10, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> 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. 

Show me how my digital simulation of the analog thermostat actually controls the temperature of any room in the real world. Looks to me like it can only regulate simulated temperature in a simulated room. To make it work here in reality, I need to wire it to a real room through some interface on my real computer not included in the real original object simulated.

Now I have a true thermostat, which I simulate again. But the same problem arises: I create only another digital description of a thermostat -- and digital simulations of things do not equal the things they describe.

Compare this to creating copies of digital objects like software in which the "simulation" really does have all the real-world functionality as the original.

-gts