Re: Machines that think...

Paul A. Toth (toth1@JUNO.COM)
Mon, 19 May 1997 18:42:23 EDT

In reply to Dr. Manier:

The reference to a vodka binge was to the apparently departed list member
who wrote a besotted letter to his friend and then accidentally sent it
to everyone on this list.

What I meant to imply was that a novelist may be thinking
philosophically, but I've never heard one claim to be working in terms of
logical consistency, not unless he/she is a hack. That Percy was a
philosopher on one hand and a novelist on the other probably only
encouraged him to fail on a grander scale in his fiction, if it is read
in terms of philosophy. I'm in favor of such failures. It is much easier
to succeed in the 2 + 2 = 4 variety of fiction. I was not promoting one
set of standards for fiction and another for philosophy.

I think I'll have some cake now.

Respectfully,

Paul