[ExI] The digital nature of brains

Gordon Swobe gts_2000 at yahoo.com
Sat Jan 23 18:20:34 UTC 2010


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

> Jesus Christ, how many people on this list can actually
> read? You snip out most of what I wrote as if I were
> disagreeing with your assertions about simulations

When you start a post with the one-word sentence "Wrong", as you did, then I think you should expect the other person to think you have a disagreement.

, when
> obviously I was drawing attention to the difference between
> *functional simulations* and *superficial representations*:
> 
> <Wrong. You see a digital representation of some aspects
> of the [thermometer]--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. >
> 
> I doubt that my slip in typing "computer" when I meant
> "thermometer" has any bearing on your misprision.
> 
> How about addressing my actual point?

I would ask you to do to the same, Damien.

I responded to Eric's suggestion that actual digital thermostats equal digital simulations of analog thermostats. I don't see them as such for the reasons I gave, and also I don't see digital simulations of analog thermostats as copies or (to your point) as emulations of real thermostats. 

Unless we add something to the picture in the actual world, digital simulations of analog thermostats can regulate temperature only in simulated environments. If you really don't disagree then I wonder why you did not begin your post with something less confrontational.

-gts



      



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