X-Message-Number: 14969
From: "Pat Clancy" <>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 10:57:31 -0800
Subject: Re: Machines and Brains

Mike Perry wrote:

> So in this more general sense we could ask if the brain too is such a
> device, i.e. a "Turing machine." At the quantum level it seems we must
> concur with that judgment; the Bekenstein bound puts a limit of around 4 x
> 10^53 (discrete) state changes per second in an object the size of a human

> brain. In other ways the possible changes conform to a finite-state device, 
with
> allowance for probabilistic effects. 

Quantum considerations do not support the brain being a Turing machine; in 
fact quite the opposite. A Turing machine cannot implement quantum reality; 

to the extent that quantum effects play a part in the function of the mind (and
noone knows to what extent that might be), a Turing machine would be ruled 
out.

Pat Clancy

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