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From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.philosophy.tech
Subject: Re: Thought and Utility
Message-ID: <1551@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Jan 90 15:48:35 GMT
References: <31821@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <0cTG02uf793w01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <7462@cs.utexas.edu> <5cK702mf795h01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <1213@oravax.UUCP>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 28

In article <1213@oravax.UUCP> ian@oravax.odyssey.UUCP (Ian Sutherland) writes:
>Doesn't the thermostat change its decision procedure when I turn the
>dial? 
[...]
>                                  Both you and the thermostat change
>within certain limits defined by your construction.  The difference
>seems to me to be one of degree rather than kind.

That's one of the problems: it "seems to you", but maybe it seems some
other way to someone else.  How do we decide which of you is right?
Of course, things might be defined so that it's pretty clear what the
answer is, but then you run the risk of confining yourself to something
trivial when there are much more interesting issues lurking nearby.
My view is that we don't yet know enough to say what the interesting
similarities and differences are and so shouldn't think that the
concepts we can define now are necessarily the ones we really ought to
care about.

But suppose you're right and it is just a matter of degree.  That may
not tell us all that much in the end.  For example, the difference
between moving a 3 miles per hour and moving at 90 percent of the
speed of light is a matter of degree, but there are nonetheless
significant effects that aren't noticeable at the lower speed.
Our current theories may lead us to say there aren't any interesting
effects as we move away from the thermostat case, but why should we
suppose those theories are correct?

-- Jeff