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From: erwin@trwacs.UUCP (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: how many distinct thoughts can a person have?
Message-ID: <314@trwacs.UUCP>
Date: 19 Jun 91 16:19:50 GMT
References: <1991Jun19.033316.18773@athena.mit.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
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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? Note I do not mean
>"astronomicallly large" - I mean infinite (and perhaps uncountably so)
>in the strict mathematical sense. It seems plausible to me; does
>anyone have a good argument either way?

The number of distinct human thoughts isn't even countably infinite
in a quantum-mechanical universe, let alone uncountable. However,
if we ignore that argument, the question boils down to whether the
state of the brain is sensitively dependent to its state on a
cauchy surface. I believe Paul Rapp has evidence that it is. So,
although the number isn't infinite, it looks like it's uncountable.

-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com