Posted by
Russell Standish on
Nov 10, 2004; 12:55am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Do-computers-try-tp519733p519735.html
The pointy edge of this debate concerns life. Since we don't really
have a good definition of life, some artificial life researchers would
say that their computational systems really are alive, and worthy of
the tag "artificial life". Others would say that they are only a
model, or a simulation of the real thing.
To make things a little clearer, a Turing machine simulated on a
computer, is still a real Turing machine. So is a cellular automata.
Cheers
On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 11:37:59PM -0500, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>
> Where am I going here. Oh. It is to say that perhaps the question of when is a simulation actually the thing simulated is the same as the question when is the metaphor actually the same as the thing to which the metaphor is made.
>
> Hmmmm. That didn't help much, did it.
>
> Anyway, thanks for your comment.
>
> Nick
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Professor of Psychology and Ethology
> Clark University
>
[hidden email]
>
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/>
[hidden email]
>
>
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