re: Asimov, consciousness etc.

anima@devi.demon.co.uk
Fri, 20 Oct 1995 23:16:27 +0000

Bill Ramsay responds to my brief notes on finite automata, and then says:

>I'd like a copy of the paper you mention.

I wasn't really referring to a particular paper: the finite automaton is a
basic mechanism of fairly general currency in the early cybernetics, and I
must confess that I don't recall who first put forward the idea: some
mathematically inclined operations researcher or cybernetician, I'd guess.

One handy source of the basics in cybernetics of those days is Klir &
Valach's book. I'm at home right now and the title escapes me, but if you
wanted an overview of the basic vocabulary (including such useful notions
as Turing's test and information theory (about which I posted to this
newsgroup about 2 weeks ago, BTW, and still haven't seen the item
appear....) I could look it up, and send the details when I get back to the
office on Monday. Shout if so.

(Another interesting book which provides a cybernetic vocabulary to some of
the early speculations about brainlike systems is Ross-Ashby's "Design for
a Brain" Cambridge University Press.)

Kind regards

Devi Jankowicz

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