X-Message-Number: 14901 Date: Sun, 12 Nov 2000 16:14:32 -0800 From: Lee Corbin <> Subject: Simulating People and Animals Thomas Donaldson wrote in Message #14891 >While I personally would say that in the sense of this previous >question we ourselves are abstract beings, it most certainly does >not follow that we can be treated as if we need not take any special >form ie. biological, for instance. Even a little reading on just how >neurons work makes me wonder whether a computer in the present sense >could really imitate us at all well. Hello Thomas! I hope that every thing is going well for you. Let me immediately say that I continue to appreciate the notes of caution that you insert into some of the rather enthusiastic and perhaps excess chains of logic that some of us are prone to. Your skepticism is valued indeed. But I was wondering if you could be a little more precise about what you mean regarding this paragraph of yours that I have just quoted. First, I totally agree that today's software and hardware are totally inadequate to imitate people convincingly. But I'm not sure what you mean by "[any] computer in the present sense". Of course, computers and programs running on them have been with us just fifty years, not even a wink in evolutionary time. Yet almost every day we hear that transistors are getting smaller and faster. We are also subjected to many claims that materials technology in general is advancing in many directions, among them techniques that may improve to the point that even skin, teeth, and eyes might be successfully simulated before long. (By "computers", I also mean a finite set of sequential processors of the Von Neumann architecture, in effect Turing machines of advanced implementation.) My question is: Do you believe that it will never be possible for sets of computers of the above description to take on the size and shape of a human body and to successfully imitate a person? That is, even if humanity's total resources for the next billion years were dedicated to the project, it simply will never be possible---no matter how small and fast computers get and no matter how far materials technology proceeds--- for computers to successfully imitate animals and humans, to all outward appearances and effects? If you do, this will be a most extraordinarily powerful principle deserving of great attention. There are so many truly interesting questions about it that can be asked. Thanks, Lee Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14901