At 07:56 PM 17/12/00 -0800, samantha wrote:
>A general purpose computer
>has a finite number of possible states if looked at at the bit or
>physical component level. But because it is reprogrammable (and even
>self-programmable) its "states" in terms of possible contents
>(semantics) are infinite. Much like all the possible essays are
>infinite even when expressed with a finite vocabulary.
Thus Chomsky trounced Skinner back in 1959. I would have expected this
insight to be common currency by now...
Damien Broderick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:37 MDT