X-Message-Number: 14969 From: "Pat Clancy" <> Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2000 10:57:31 -0800 Subject: Re: Machines and Brains Mike Perry wrote: > So in this more general sense we could ask if the brain too is such a > device, i.e. a "Turing machine." At the quantum level it seems we must > concur with that judgment; the Bekenstein bound puts a limit of around 4 x > 10^53 (discrete) state changes per second in an object the size of a human > brain. In other ways the possible changes conform to a finite-state device, with > allowance for probabilistic effects. Quantum considerations do not support the brain being a Turing machine; in fact quite the opposite. A Turing machine cannot implement quantum reality; to the extent that quantum effects play a part in the function of the mind (and noone knows to what extent that might be), a Turing machine would be ruled out. Pat Clancy Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=14969