Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!samsung!umich!sharkey!tygra!dave
From: dave@tygra.Michigan.COM (David Conrad)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: how many distinct thoughts can a person have?
Message-ID: <1991Jun20.083708.13355@tygra.Michigan.COM>
Date: 20 Jun 91 08:37:08 GMT
References: <1991Jun19.033316.18773@athena.mit.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing System, Detroit, MI
Lines: 25

In article <1991Jun19.033316.18773@athena.mit.edu> mlevin@jade.tufts.edu writes:
>   I was just reading Z. Pylyshin's "Computation and Cognition", and
>at one point, he states something like: "the number of distinct human
>thoughts is uncountable." Does anyone have any arguments for or
>against the idea that the number of possible distinct human thoughts
>(or mental states) is uncountably infinite? ... It seems plausible to me;
>does anyone have a good argument either way?
>
>Mike Levin

I think the argument would rest on the analog, as opposed to digital, nature
of the brain.  Since the potential across a synapse when it fires can be at
any value, i.e. it is not quantized, then one could make use of the
uncountably infinitely many real numbers between any two points on the
number line.  The question is, is our intelligence dependant on the analog
nature of the brain, or can it be simulated on a finite state machine?
This question has sparked much debate, as you might well imagine.

David R. Conrad
dave@michigan.com
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