Information-processing in Robotics, Biology and Philosophy
Sponsored by
School of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Northumbria
with
Aaron Sloman,
University of Birmingham,
author Computer Revolution in Philosophy: Philosophy, Science and Models of Mind
7 – 8.30pm, Tuesday, 21st October 2008
Lecture Theatre CCE1 002
Newcastle Business School
University of Northumbria
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What can biologists, roboticists and philosophers learn from one another?
There are deep connections between ideas developed in computer
science, biology and philosophy that have not been widely understood.
A central feature common to biological organisms is the acquisition,
manipulation, and use of information. Since the development of
electronic computers, computer science has made major advances in
the study of forms of information-processing. However we have still
understood only a small subset of the information processing
problems and solutions produced by biological evolution.
Despite major advances in
tools and techniques for investigating biological systems, we still
lack good theories about what they are doing, how they do it, and
whether it is possible to replicate or model those chemical
information-processing functions in digital electronic computing
systems.
One of the major advances in computer science and software
engineering has been the separation of virtual machines from
physical implementation, allowing many different kinds of
functionality to share the same physical basis. It
is very likely that evolution also "discovered" the importance of
that separation. Understanding what organisms do and how they do it may
require us to shift the main focus of research on biological
information-processing away from physical/chemical details towards
investigation of the virtual machines used. That will require new
ways of thinking about brains and other biological mechanisms.
Acknowledging the importance of virtual machines that process
information and perform control functions has profound implications
for philosophical investigations of the nature of causality, for it
implies that events in virtual machines, can cause physical effects.
Moreover, if engineers often find it useful to design and analyse
complex systems in terms of the virtual machines involved rather
than the specific physical mechanisms implementing them, the same could be
true of biological and artificial systems that need to understand their own
operations.
From this viewpoint biological self-aware systems could
to be construed as self-monitoring, self-modifying virtual machines
that run on, but are different from, physical information-processing
substrates. This has profound implications for several branches of
philosophy, including, philosophy of mind, epistemology, philosophy
of science and mathematics, and philosophical studies of free will.
Questions about the nature of free-will are transformed in
the context of virtual machines that are able to grow themselves ...
Come along, hear the arguments and have your say
Speaker:
Aaron Sloman,
University of Birmingham
Chair:
Aidan
Burton, Newcastle University
This event is FREE
but BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL
Contact:
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