September
11, 2017 Monday
Bedtime
Story
Thinking is, after all, Computation
Tonight
I continue with the excerpt from the chapter “How Universal are Turing
Machines?”
“Even
if it turns out that the brain takes advantage of quantum computation, we will
probably learn how to build devices that take advantage of the same effects –
in which case it would still be possible to simulate the human brain with the
machine.
The
theoretical limitations of the computers provide no useful dividing line
between human beings and machines.
As
far as we know, the brain is a kind of computer, and thought is just a complex
computation.
Perhaps
this conclusion sounds harsh to you, but in my view it takes nothing away from
the wonder or value of human thought.
The
statement that thought is a complex computation is like the statement sometimes
made by biologists that life is a complex chemical reaction: both statements
are true, and yet they still may be seen as incomplete.
They
identify the correct components, but they ignore the mystery.
To
me, life and thought are made all the more wonderful by the realization that
they emerge from simple, understandable parts.
I
do not feel diminished by my kinship to Turing’s machine.”
I
end the excerpt here.
Aren’t
both the writing and the truth beautiful?
Well,
it may not be to most but then that can’t be helped, can it be?
Majority
of humans will continue to believe what they desire to or what they hope for irrespective
of the glaring evidences that are right before their eyes and under their
noses.
Now
let me take you back to Gottlob Frege and the extreme importance he gave to
logic and mathematics as totally independent entities
To
his mind, there had to exist a complete dichotomy between numbers/mathematics
and human mind.
In
short, there is a fundamental distinction between logic (and by extension
mathematics) and psychology.
Mathematics
and numbers exist and would continue to exist even if all human mental
activities were to shut down or we become extinct.
I
will stop with Frege for now though I hope it is not the last we hear from him.
Just
as an aside, are you not curious as to what kind of personality he was?
I
surely am so I searched it out and it seems somebody else too was curious about
him as a human.
Frege
never said this about himself but his students described him an extreme
introvert who would seldom get into discussions, dialogue or conversations.
That
probably was most wise of him.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night mon ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment