Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> At 07:56 PM 17/12/00 -0800, samantha wrote:
>
> >A general purpose computer
> >has a finite number of possible states if looked at at the bit or
> >physical component level. But because it is reprogrammable (and even
> >self-programmable) its "states" in terms of possible contents
> >(semantics) are infinite. Much like all the possible essays are
> >infinite even when expressed with a finite vocabulary.
>
> Thus Chomsky trounced Skinner back in 1959. I would have expected this
> insight to be common currency by now...
This only holds if there are infinite numbers of authors, or else all
authors are immortal, and never stop writing.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:50:37 MDT