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From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: The intelligent system
Message-ID: <1489@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 08:06:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.1489
Posted: Thu Sep  5 08:06:20 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Sep-85 04:48:32 EDT
References: <304@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 33

In article <304@decwrl.UUCP> williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams) writes:

>	The mind is intimately linked to the brain. It is
>important to remember that the difference between mind and brain
>is something that is defined, and not something that is
>necessarily intrinsic to nature. 

>	I don't think it is sufficient to say the mind is 
>something that can exist outside of the brain in something like, 
>let's say, a machine. Machines, and in particular, computers, 
>will most likely develop an entirely different kind of 
>intelligence. I seriously doubt that a machine capable of 
>supporting a mind, as we define it, will naturally evolve. The 
>artificial minds that will be developed in the future will be 
>different because the technology is different, and the ways these 
>technologies are optimized are different.

>	A perhaps better definition of the difference between 
>mind and brain would be to consider the brain to be the static 
>structure, whereas the mind would be the dynamic structure. There 
>is a optimal balance between mind and brain. An attractive 
>analogy can be drawn between the mind and software, and the brain 
>and hardware. Anything that is performed by the brain could 
>theoretically be performed by the mind, and vice-versa.

I think I rather like this way of destinguishing between mind and brain.  I
would like to add that given this division, it is not impossible to consider
the possibility of simulating the processing of the brain, and thus being
able to have human minds without human brains.

Charley Wingate

  Omnis Mundus Jocundetur Nato Salvatore