Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA23485 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 3 Apr 2001 11:30:29 +0100 Message-ID: <3AC9A569.258C00E9@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Date: Tue, 03 Apr 2001 11:26:49 +0100 From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk> Organization: University of Manchester X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Determinism References: <3AC904E5.10167.246146@localhost> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> To completely model a system, first, your map would have to be
> coextensive with the territory, thus doubling it; then you'd need a
> map to represent the Heideggerian change that mapping, which
> requires perception of, therefore interaction with, would make to the
> system, then another map of this further altering recursion, and so
> on ad nauseum ad infinitum. Due to this infinite progress, it is, IN
> PRINCIPLE, impossible to completely represent a concrete
> empirical system, such as a mind or an ecology.
The practical difficulties of the mapping aren't really relevant. The
point is that *in principle* if you could have perfect knowledge you
could perfectly predict. There are no ghosts in any machines. In
practice we can only work within practical boundaries.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 03 2001 - 11:33:19 BST