re: Asimov, consciousness etc.

W Ramsay (w.ramsay@Strath.ac.uk)
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 09:05:18 +0100

Devi Jankowicz wrote:

>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.

Devi, I was referring to this one, from your earlier posting:

>If anyone is interested in this, please e-mail me for a copy of a recent
>paper I did for the Namur Cybernetics Congress 1995, in which I tried to
>marry Kellian constructivist ideas with Pask's.

...

>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.)

Thanks for the references. I remember Ashby from years ago, in my early=20
Education studies, of all places. Roger Penrose's "The Emperor's New Mind"=
=20
which I mentioned previously is also a good source on finite automata,=20
T=FCring tests etc. for those previously unacquainted ..

Regards,

Bill.
Bill Ramsay,
Dept. of Educational Studies,
University of Strathclyde,
Jordanhill Campus,
GLASGOW,
G13 1PP,
Scotland.

'phone: +44 (0)141 950 3364
'fax: +44 (0)141 950 3367
e-mail: w.ramsay@strath.ac.uk

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