Re: Machines that think...

Paul A. Toth (toth1@JUNO.COM)
Sun, 18 May 1997 23:34:30 EDT

One reply to:

1. ...it may be pleasing to combine in various possible worlds in a
fictional account of one world, a world, say, in which the speed of
light is both regularly exceeded and can be exceeded by nothing else
whatsoever, but it surely makes very good sense to say such a world is
incoherent.

*** It seems to me that this incoherence is at the very forefront of
physics and philosophy. True, it is possible that it may not be chaotic
at all, but only chaotic to the human mind. As I heard in a recent
interview with a quantom physicist, those who state they do not
understand quantam physics, understand it best of all.

The experimenter alters the experiment simply by participating in it. If
there is any connection to philosophy at all, then obviously philsophy
can only remain pure, practical and sensible in a classroom -- as soon as
it is removed from that atmosphere, it is contaminated, or altered, just
as it alters and contaminates the outside world.

2. But there is a problem about combining fiction with philosophy, or at

least there was, once upon a time. The problem is that perfectly
good
fiction can beg important questions and eschew consistency as the
hobgoblin of small minds. Philosophers and scientists get low marks
for that
sort of thing.

*** They also get low marks for inhabiting a culture of pure theory and
rationalism which almost always crumbles in the face of reality, just as
fiction crumbles in the face of theory and rationalism.

In some ways, fiction is a sort of philosophical and/or social experiment
(even the worst of it); I doubt Percy would claim that fiction is meant
to stand side by side with philosophy, or vice versa, though he practiced
both. I think Percy's hope was that he could humanize philosophy,
reinvigorate ideas which had been coopted by fundamentalists and others,
and, through his linguistic studies, "diagnose", as he might have done
with physical illness, had he become a practicing physician, a disorder
that cannot be proven by sciece: the sickness of the soul.

As an aside, I can imagine that Percy were able to write a novel about
the Kasperov/Deep Blue confrontation, he might say that the interesting
thing about the contest was not the victory of Deep Blue, but that
Kasparov held his head in his hands in despair while Deep Blue blinked
and flickered. The soul of a new machine? One of the quotes from
Kierkegaard Percy favored: the only thing worse than despair is to not
know you are in despair. Clearly Deep Blue should be on electronic
Prozac.

Did Walker Percy have too many tigers by the tail?

*** Perhaps in his attempts to understand philosophy in terms outside the
classroom, yes. In terms of transferring or applying philosophy to
something useful in life, as opposed to grants, yes.

Now let's all go on a vodka binge!

Paul A. Toth