From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Jan 15 2002 - 19:33:59 MST
From: "James Rogers" <jamesr@best.com>
> While sentience may be emergent, massive parallelism will have nothing to do
> with it. The brain is massively parallel because it was convenient in the
> evolutionary scheme of things, not because it is of intrinsic importance to
> sentience. Anything doable in massive parallelism is doable on a serial
> (i.e. "less massively parallel") processor.
Perhaps so...
We don't *know* yet, because serial processors have yet to claim that they are
sentient.
> I agree that complexity does not equate to infinite-state, but I don't see
> where J.R. was saying that it does. However, saying that abstract thought
> is only possible on clockless logic seems to be just plain wrong.
Yes, indeed, the human brain functions at around 40 hertz, according to
Francis Crick, _The Astonishing Hypothesis_, 1994. Although awareness seems to
require a very complex operating system, that definitely doesn't equate to
infinite-state.
--- --- --- --- ---
We truly understand reality in proportion as the scientific method accurately
identifies incorrect thinking.
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