X-Message-Number: 12715
Date: Thu, 04 Nov 1999 22:25:49 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: What is a "real" creature?

Thomas Donaldson, responding to a previous posting of mine, says (#12701):

>Basically I would say that all your 3 cases are the same, but not in the
>sense you'd want. They are all cases of a computer program in a computer,
>as distinct from controls inside the robot (the issue doesn't have to 
>do at all with WHERE the program is. The issue has to do with whether
>or not we produced the program as a set of symbols and can change it as
>we wish, or the robot has its own directions which can only change with
>difficulty). 

So Thomas, a robot directed by an onboard, stored-program computer is
apparently not a "real" creature, but some other type of robot is. I'd like
to know what. Can you be more specific, give examples, etc. Apparently too,
we could have two robots that both behave the same way, one controlled by a
stored-program computer, one by something else, and the "something else" is
a "real" creature, while the stored-program-controlled one isn't. Or is this
possible?

Mike Perry 

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