Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA18829 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 6 Feb 2002 06:04:21 GMT Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 21:58:39 -0800 Message-Id: <200202060558.g165wdW05891@mail3.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [66.156.194.113] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Beam me up, Scotty Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Re: Beam me up, ScottyDate: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 13:24:22 -0800
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>From: Joe Dees
>
>> >> >I've never suggested that form (morphe) is beamed into our heads.
>> >> >My claim is that memory is a property of nature. What distinguishes
>> >> >life from, say, books and computers, is that living things possess
>> >> >natural memory-- the retention of the past-- while books and
>> >> >computers rely on storage of material configurations.
>> >> >
>> >> How droll. And disingenuous. The manner in which our brains store
>> >information (in configurations of dendrite-and-axon-connected neurons)
>> >IS natural; it naturally evolved.
>> >>>>
>> >
>> >Mechanism confuses the distinction between nature and artifice by
>claiming that mechanical objects evolved naturally. While our brains did
>indeed evolve through natural selection, it would be the most astonishing
>coincidence if they just happened to develop into essentially the same
>device designed and manufactured by human intelligence. The idea that
>brains are computers-- with artificial memory and logic-- is crude,
>anthropic projection.
>> >
>> Of course, we made computers to operate like their intentional model, the
>human brain. It's not that brains are computers, it's that computers are
>modeled after brains (and imperfectly).
>>>>
>
>Says who? My impression was that the computer-brain analogy emerged after
>the basics of computer science were already in place. The early 20th
>century metaphor of the brain was the telephone switchboard.
>
It closely followed such creations as ENIAC, and has influenced a half-century of cyberdevelopment.
>
>> But one thing that people who built computers got right is the fact that
>brains store knowledge and memories, so they intentionally built an analogue
>into computers for the naturally evolved ability of human brains to store
>memories and knowledge in neuronal-axonal-dendritic-synaptic configurations.
>>>>
>
>You sure about that? Who devised the electronic storage of data, and where
>did he claim to have been mimicking the brain?
>
Alan Turing and John Von Neumann both made such assertions, and were instrumental in elaborating the theory such technological achievements instantiated.
>
>Ted
>
>
>
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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
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