The Mathematico-Cognition Reality Theory (MCRT) Ver 6.0

2006-09-06 Thread marc . geddes

An update to some of my earlier horribly crude metaphysics ideas.  This
latest version of my theory of metaphysics is at last *starting* to
converge on an academic quality philosophy paper.  I think it's OK to
post so long as I keep all postings under 4 000 words or so.

I make very clear my alternative mathematical philosophy to that of
ordinary Platonism and at the end make a clear radical suggestion for
the explanation of Qualia.  My key postulate is that not all
mathematical truths are fixed -i.e pure Platonism is false - this idea
will certainly not please Bruno! ;)  I've talked before about the
possibility that there may be more than one kind of 'time' - now I make
very clear what I meant by that.



Mathematico-Cognition: Towards a Universal Ontology
By Marc Geddes

Version 6
This version: 7th Sep, 2006
Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract:

'The skeleton out-line for a new metaphysics is presented.  The
argument against reductive materialism is based on Mathematical
Platonism. The theory presented is a variant of Many-Aspect Monism, or
'Fundamental Property Pluralism'.  The framework is aiming to be
universal in scope - a logical scaffolding capable of integrating all
general classes of knowledge under a single explanatory umbrella.  It
is proposed that reality manifests itself as 3 different fundamental
knowledge domains - Physical, Volitional and Mathematical/Cognitive.
It is proposed that each domain has associated with it its own
definition of 'causality'.  The radical new idea proposed is that
mathematical entities are not static, but can change their state by
moving through 'mathematical time'in 'configuration space'.
Reality itself is postulated to have a two-level structure reflecting
the difference between objects (concrete things with definite locations
in physical space and time) and classes (abstract things which are
universal in scope).


Mathematico-Cognition: Towards a Universal Ontology


Mathematical Platonism

Mathematical Platonism is the idea that mathematical concepts have
objective reality.  The basic position is that human mathematicians are
engaged in *discovery* of mathematical facts that exist *out there* in
reality.  Mathematical facts are not created by humans, but are things
which exist external to human society and are discovered.  Mathematical
entities are patterns, or abstractions derived from concrete facts.
Mathematical Platonism is the idea that these abstractions have a real
existence external to the human mind.

Since mathematical Platonism is central to the theory presented here,
an over-view of the arguments in favor of Platonism will first be
given.

First, why should we believe in the objective existence of mathematical
entities? Surely, some will argue, mathematical entities are really
just abstract fictions (or invented languages) we use for describing
what are really material processes. This position is known as
nominalism.

However, there's an argument known as *The argument from
Indispensability*. Certain mathematical theories (for instance
analysis) are indispensable for modern physics. Physics uses
quantifiers which range over domains that include mathematical entities
not in space and time. Thus, the argument goes; since we have to accept
our best scientific theories of the world, we should accept that the
entities referred to in our theories really exist.

Now one could try to remove the references to mathematical entities in
scientific theories. For instance the philosopher Hartry Field (1980)
has proposed this - he suggested trying to remove talk of real numbers
in Newton's theory of gravity and replacing numbers with space-time
points and regions. But if one tries to do this, one finds that the
theories become enormously unwieldy - mathematical entities such as
numbers are just so *useful* in science. If there are entities in our
theories which it is very useful to refer to, this provides some
pragmatic grounds for believing in their existence. The argument at
work here is Occam's razor: in science the general rule of thumb is
that simple explanations are favored over more complex ones. Since in
science references to mathematical entities simplify scientific
theories, the simplest explanation is that these mathematical entities
really exist.

The physicist David Deutsch in his book 'The Fabric Of Reality', uses
the principle to establish 'Criterion for reality'. The idea is that we
should regard as real those postulated entities which, if we tried to
replace them with something else would complicate our explanations.
Deutsch's principle was this:

'If according to the simplest explanation, an entity is complex and
autonomous, then that entity is real.' ('The Fabric Of Reality', Pg 91)

As Detusch points out, mathematical entities do appear to match the
criteria for reality: 'Abstract entities that are complex and
autonomous exist objectively and are part of the fabric of reality.
There exist logically necessary truths about these entities, and 

Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Hal Finney

Russel Standish writes:
 Or my point that in a Multiverse, counterfactuals are instantiated
 anyway. Physical supervenience and computationalism are not
 incompatible in a multiverse, where physical means the observed
 properties of things like electrons and so on.

I'd think that in the context of a multiverse, physical supervenience
would say that whether consciousness is instantiated would depend only
on physical conditions here, at this point in the multiverse, and would
not depend on conditions elsewhere.  It would be a sort of locality
condition for the multiverse.  In that case it seems you still have
a problem because even if counterfactuals are tested elsewhere in the
multiverse, whether they are handled correctly will not be visible
locally.

So you'd still have a contradiction, with supervenience saying
that consciousness depends only on local physical conditions, while
computationalism would say that consciousness depends on the results of
counterfactual tests done in other branches or worlds of the multiverse.

Hal Finney

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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Russell Standish

On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 12:25:10AM -0700, Hal Finney wrote:
 I'd think that in the context of a multiverse, physical supervenience
 would say that whether consciousness is instantiated would depend only
 on physical conditions here, at this point in the multiverse, and would
 not depend on conditions elsewhere.  It would be a sort of locality
 condition for the multiverse. 

Why do you say this? Surely physical supervenience is simply
supervenience on some physical object. Physical objects are spread
across the multiverse, and are capable of reacting to all
counterfactuals presented to it.

Inside views are local - but the whole shebang must be spread across
the Multiverse.

Cheers

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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 05-sept.-06, à 00:00, 1Z a écrit :

 However, comp may not be the same as computationalism.


In that case there should be an error in the Universal Dovetailer 
Argument.

Bruno



http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Peter Jones writes:

 Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
  Peter Jones writes:
 
  [Stathis Papaioannou]
 If every computation is implemented everywhere anyway, this is 
 equivalent to the situation where every
 computation exists as a platonic object, or every computation exists 
 implemented on some computer or
 brain in a material multiverse. This gives rise to the issues of 
 quantum immortality and the white rabbit
 problem, as discussed at great length in the past on this list.

 One way to discredit all this foolishness is to abandon 
 computationalism...
 
  [Brent Meeker]
I don't see how assuming consciousness is non-computational solves any 
of these
conundrums about every object implementing every possible computation.
 
   It would mean that every object implementing every possible computation
   doesn't
   imply that every object is conscious. Of course, one can also deny
   that conclusion be regading computation as structural rather than
   semantic.
 
  You don't have to go as far as saying that *computation* is structural 
  rather than semantic. You only need to say
  that *consciousness* is structural, and hence non-computational. That's 
  what some cognitive scientists have done,
  eg. Penrose, Searle, Maudlin. Personally, I don't see why there is such a 
  disdain for the idea that every computation
  is implemented, including every conscious computation. The idea is still 
  consistent with all the empirical facts, since
  we can only interact with a special subset of computations, implemented on 
  conventional computers and brains.
 
 
 Occam's razor, It is an unncessary complication.

No, it's simpler. You would otherwise have to come up with an explanation as to 
why only particular conscious computations are implemented, and it is that 
which would make the theory more complicated than it needs to be. 

Statthis Papaioannou
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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Peter Jones writes:

 But if implementing a particular computation depends on an observer, 
 or
 a dicitonary,
 or somesuch, it is not the case that everything implements every
 computation unless
 it can be shown that evey dictionary somehow exists as well.
   
The computation provides its own observer if it is conscious, by 
definition.
  
   But providing its own observer, if computationalism is true,
   must be a computational property, ie. a property possesed
   only by particular programmes. However, if any system
   can be interpreted as running every programme, everysystems
   has the self-observation property, if interpretedt he right way.
  
   IOW, one you introduce interpretation-dependence, you can't get away
   from it.
 
  That's right: if there is at least one physical system, then every 
  computation is implemented, although we can only
  interact with them at our level if they are implemented on a conventional 
  brain or computer, which means we have
  the means to interpret them at hand. The non-conscious computations are 
  there in the trivial sense that a block of
  marble contains every possible statue of a given size.
 
 All the computations are merely potential, in the absence of
 interpreters and dictionaries,
 whether conscious or not.
 
  The conscious computations, on the other hand, are there and
  self-aware
 
 Not really. They are just possibilities.
 
   even though we cannot interact with them, just as all the statues in a 
  block of marble would be conscious
  if statues were conscious and being embedded in marble did not render them 
  unconscious.
 
 But that gets to the heart of the paradox. You are suggesting that
 conscious
 computations are still conscious even thought hey don't exst and
 are mere possiiblities! That is surely a /reductio/ of one of your
 premisses

A non-conscious computation cannot be *useful* without the 
manual/interpretation, and in this sense could be called just a potential 
computation, but a conscious computation is still *conscious* even if no-one 
else is able to figure this out or interact with it. If a working brain in a 
vat were sealed in a box and sent into space, it could still be dreaming away 
even after the whole human race and all their information on brain function are 
destroyed in a supernova explosion. As far as any alien is concerned who comes 
across it, the brain might be completely inscrutable, but that would not make 
the slightest difference to its conscious experience.
 
then it can be seen as implementing more than one computation 
simultaneously during the
given interval.
  
   AFAICS that is only true in terms of dictionaries.
 
  Right: without the dictionary, it's not very interesting or relevant to 
  *us*. If we were to actually map a random physical
  process onto an arbitrary computation of interest, that would be at least 
  as much work as building and programming a
  conventional computer to carry out the computation. However, doing the 
  mapping does not make a difference to the
  *system* (assuming we aren't going to use it to interact with it). If we 
  say that under a certain interpretation - here it
  is, printed out on paper - the system is implementing a conscious 
  computation, it would still be implementing that
  computation if we had never determined and printed out the interpretation.
 
 The problem remains that the system's own self awareness,
 or lack thereof, is not observer-relative. something has to give.

Self-awareness is observer-relative with the observer being oneself. Where is 
the difficulty?

Stathis Papaioannou
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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Peter Jones writes:

 Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
 
  Under one mapping, the physical system implements a program which thinks, 
  I am now experiencing my first second of life. Under a different mapping, 
  it implements a program which thinks, I am now experiencing my second 
  second of life.
 
 And who is doing all the interpreting ?

Who is doing the interpreting for your conscious experience?

Stathis Papaioannou
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Re: Rép: ROADMAP (well, not yet really...

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 04-sept.-06, à 16:12, 1Z a écrit :



 Bruno Marchal wrote:
 Le 04-sept.-06, à 02:56, 1Z a écrit :


 Why should a belief in other minds (which I do not directly 
 experience)
 be more reasonable thant a belief in unexperienced primary matter ?
 It's a question of consistency.

 Attributing mind to others explains many things.


 And the project of expaling things with matter has been going strong
 for
 many centuries.


But if you know the literature in philosophy of mind you know that 
the notion of matter has never been successful. It has ease the 
progress in *quantitative physics, but only by paying the price of 
hiding the fundamental mind/body question. Of course the fundamental 
questions has been appropriated by the fake-authoritative religion 
people. And as I have said often, if you look at the literature in 
physics, primary matter never play an explicit role. It just help to 
interpret formula without jeopardizing common sense.




 There are rich (albeit
 vague) theories about those other mind (treated in Psychology (cf
 jealousy, shame, fear, ...) and Theology (does other minds go to
 paradise?). Although I have no direct experience of other minds I have
 many indirect evidences.

 Yes, that;s the problem. What stands between your mind and
 other minds is your body and other bodies.


Yes. But we can believe in bodies without attributing to them primary 
matters.




 Unexperienced primary matter? I have not even indirect experiences,

 No experience of time and change ?


Sure. So what? Time and change can be explained by the third hypostase 
which appears naturally when you define the first person in terms of 
the provability logics.



 and
 with comp and/or the quantum I can not even ascribe a simple meaning 
 to
 the concept.

 Quantum mechanics is a theory *of* matter.


Yes. But it is even less a theory of primary matter than Newtonian 
physics, where we can still imagine matter is composed of real atomos 
(non splitable entities).

Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 04-sept.-06, à 16:57, David Nyman a écrit :



 Bruno Marchal wrote:

 Either those *specific* physical activities are turing emulable, and 
 we
 are back to 1) and 2), or they are not, and then comp is false.
 Recall we assume comp.

 I don't follow. I thought Maudlin is proposing a physical machine
 running the consciousness program, not a turing-emulated one. Are you
 saying that if we assume comp, the 'physical activity level' of a
 correctly substituted emulation is posited as equivalent to that of a
 'real' machine (i.e. there is in fact no meaningful distinction)?


Once Maudlin proposes a physical machine running a (consciousness) 
program, obviously he assumes its turing emulability. Then the 
reasoning shows that comp makes it very hard to attribute the 
consciousness to the physical activity corresponding to that physical 
emulation.
Anything a physical computer can compute is turing emulable, 'course.




  In
 this case AFAICS the substitution level would need to be below that of
 'registers' etc, which are insufficiently constrained aspects of
 machine architecture.

 We would have zombie. Why not. Once comp is false ...

 Why talk of zombies? A zombie is a being that is supposedly conceivable
 (though not to me) as being 'unconscious' despite apparently possessing
 the structural/ behavioural prerequisites of consciousness. I was
 referring to the issue that, if the characteristics of consciousness
 are indeed correlated with specific physical activities, then aspects
 of consciousness would necessarily *co-vary* with physical
 instantiation. To avoid this, comp would need to adopt a substitution
 level that preserved the invariance of whatever 'physical activities'
 were deemed relevant to consciousness (as I suggest above).


OK. That follows from the comp hyp.




 OK in this situation. But comp makes impossible to distinguish the
 experience of driving a car, and the experience of driving a virtual
 car in a virtual environment, done at the right level of substitution
 (or below). Then the movie-graph or Maudlin's Olympia shows that
 machines cannot even distinguish a physical virtual environment and a
 purely arithmetical virtual environment.

 So this is all about the level of substitution.


Exactly.



 Well, as I've
 suggested, I think the level would have to be at or below that at which
 machine architecture differences become indistinguishable.


Well. I am not sure where are you in the reasoning. Both me and Maudlin 
presuppose some material background before arriving at a 
epistemological contradiction.
Comp predict that if we look at ourself or at our neighborhood at a 
level below our substitution level then we should find the trace of the 
parallel computation existing in platonia.
That is why physics is redefined through comp as the study of a 
relative measure on an infinite set of computation quotientized by an 
non-distinguishability relation, which is then so hard to define than I 
isolate it indirectly through the lobian interview.



 So I don't
 believe that arguments involving registers etc. can be correct, because
 it becomes hard to argue coherently that the necessary invariances are
 preserved at this level. We might debate atom-by-atom, or
 circuit-by-circuit, or does the doctor have some more general principle
 to resolve this?


No. Comp explicitly forbid any rule there. That's why a comp-honest 
doctor should always tell his patient that a digital brain/body 
substitution is proposed at the patient risk and peril.
If you read the literature by the neurosurgeon you will see most of 
them bet the level is high (neuronal). Imo it is at least biochemical, 
if not quantum (just above Heizenberg indetermincay).




 BTW I think I see now that most of our original disagreements were
 language based. If comp is in essence an objective idealist model, in
 effect it begins from the assumption that 'objective idealist reality'
 exists 'in the sense that I exist' (although of course not constrained
 solipsistically to my 1st-person pov). That is all I have ever sought
 in terms of '1st-person primacy'.


Perhaps. let us proceed. I think you will see the nuance which should 
be added here at the right moment. If I try to explain now, there is 
99% of chance that it will look purely terminological. And perhaps it 
is. let us come back on this latter.

Bruno

http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 06-sept.-06, à 10:48, Russell Standish a écrit :

 On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 12:25:10AM -0700, Hal Finney wrote:
 I'd think that in the context of a multiverse, physical supervenience
 would say that whether consciousness is instantiated would depend only
 on physical conditions here, at this point in the multiverse, and 
 would
 not depend on conditions elsewhere.  It would be a sort of locality
 condition for the multiverse.

 Why do you say this? Surely physical supervenience is simply
 supervenience on some physical object. Physical objects are spread
 across the multiverse, and are capable of reacting to all
 counterfactuals presented to it.


I agree with Hal Finney objection. A simpler one is that if the 
physics needed is of the type MW or quantum (without collapse), then IF 
this is relevant for solving the maudlin's paradox then a quantum 
physical system should NOT been turing emulable.

Put in another way: suppose that a quantum system is conscious, and 
that comp is correct. Then a classical computer emulation of the 
quantum system should be conscious, but for this one only the classical 
counterfactual can play a role, and Maudlin's paradox will reappear at 
that level.

In your preceding posts, Russel says:

 I think what you're trying to say is move Maudlin's construction one
 level up. The computer (eg Klara) actually emulates a Multiverse, and
 Olympia is some kind of recording of the Multiverse.

This is not clear. The many Klaras are just inactive computers during 
PI, which should be activated in case of counterfactuals. They are 
inactive in the normal parallel world too.

 But in this case
 I would say that Olympia and Klara are actually identical, and linking
 the two is not of much conceptual value.

?

 I also have difficulty in
 saying that a Multiverse is conscious when some interior views of the
 Multiverse experience conscious states


Comp implies two things:
- The multiverse is not a priori conscious (unless you are the 
multiverse, it means the substitution level is as low as possible).
   (As Plotinus realized this is the major problem with Aristotle: the 
consciousness of the big One).
- The observable (multi)-universe is not a priori computable (the 
physics is given by an 1-indeterminacy average on an infinity of 
computations).


 t is the fallacy of assuming
 that a collection of things is always more (complex) than the
 individual things themselves.


I agree, both with comp and the quantum, although the notion of 
subsystem is rather complex in those settings.

 Multiverses are rather simple things -
 about the simplicity of Schroedinger's equation, and hardly what I'd
 call conscious.

We agree. Normal: it is the basic assumption of the everything-list, 
above comp...


 But I think we are headed in the direction of whether computable
 Multiverses really satisfy what we mean by computationalism. If
 someone copies the entirety of reality, do I still survive in a folk
 psychology sense. I am still confused on this point.

How could you not survive that?

Bruno


http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 05-sept.-06, à 15:38, 1Z a écrit :


 The conscious computations, on the other hand, are there and
 self-aware

 Not really. They are just possibilities.

  even though we cannot interact with them, just as all the statues in 
 a block of marble would be conscious
 if statues were conscious and being embedded in marble did not render 
 them unconscious.

 But that gets to the heart of the paradox. You are suggesting that
 conscious
 computations are still conscious even thought hey don't exst and
 are mere possiiblities! That is surely a /reductio/ of one of your
 premisses


The everything-lister, with or without comp, takes as natural the idea 
that all possibilities exist, and that actuality is just a possibility 
viewed from that possibility. It is known by some philosopher as the 
indexical approach of actuality. Very common for the explanation of 
time (cf Saunders, Deutsch, Einstein, ...), it can be used for all sort 
of actuality, not just the indexical nowness but also hereness, 
etc.

Bruno



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Universal Numbers (was: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Bruno Marchal


Le 05-sept.-06, à 19:59, 1Z a écrit :



 Stathis Papaioannou wrote:

 Under one mapping, the physical system implements a program which 
 thinks, I am now experiencing my first second of life. Under a 
 different mapping, it implements a program which thinks, I am now 
 experiencing my second second of life.

 And who is doing all the interpreting ?


The program itself.
And who interprets the program?
The universal numbers (= +/- the godel numbers of the universal 
machines).
(Note: from the program first person pov, it is the most *probable* 
universal numbers which will count).

And who interprets the universal numbers?

I can show that if you believe in the independent truth of even a tiny 
recursively enumerable subset of the set of the true arithmetical 
propositions, then you should understand that that tiny part of 
Arithmetic does, or better, cannot not do the interpretation of the 
universal numbers.

Incompleteness follows, and self-referentially correct universal 
numbers cannot not gamble on many form of self-indeterminateness (p, 
Bp, Bp  p, Bp  ~B~p, Bp  ~B~p  p, ...): the n-person point of views 
(similar to Plotinus' hypostases, I have discovered since).

Comp restricts the interpretation of p on true Sigma1 sentences (the 
arithmetical version of turing-equivalence). B is the arithmetical 
Godel-Lob predicate of provability.

With the comp (sigma1) restriction,  it is exactly the same 
arithmetical sentences which are true (p), provable (Bp), known (Bp  
p), observed (Bp  ~B~p), feeled (Bp  ~B~p  p), but incompleteness 
(the G* \minus G gap) makes it impossible for any self-referentially 
correct universal number to either prove, know, observe, or feel that 
equivalence, but only to bet on it for some self survival purpose, or 
not.
Realities could emerge from (extensional) arithmetical truth through 
its unavoidable many internal angle or (intensional, modal) variant. 
Strictly speaking one for each universal numbers. It is striking that 
they all obeys similar laws with respect to their self-referential 
abilities: B is an indexical(*).

(*) But still a third person one bearing on a third person!  But the 
fact that B is an indexical does explain a basic relationship which 
first person based TOE like George, David, ... I think.

Bruno

http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/


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Re: ROADMAP (SHORT)

2006-09-06 Thread Tom Caylor

Bruno Marchal wrote:
 Le 16-août-06, à 18:36, Tom Caylor a écrit :

  I noticed that you slipped in infinity (infinite collection of
  computations) into your roadmap (even the short roadmap).  In the
  technical posts, if I remember right, you said that at some point we
  were leaving the constructionist realm.  But are you really talking
  about infinity?  It is easy to slip into invoking infinity and get away
  with it without being noticed.  I think this is because we are used to
  it in mathematics.  In fact, I want to point out that David Nyman
  skipped over it, perhaps a case in point.  But then you brought it up
  again here with aleph_zero, and 2^aleph_zero, so it seems you are
  really serious about it.  I thought that infinities and singularities
  are things that physicists have dedicated their lives to trying to
  purge from the system (so far unsuccessfully ?) in order to approach a
  true theory of everything.  Here you are invoking it from the start.
  No wonder you talk about faith.
 
  Even in the realm of pure mathematics, there are those of course who
  think it is invalid to invoke infinity.  Not to try to complicate
  things, but I'm trying to make a point about how serious a matter this
  is.  Have you heard about the feasible numbers of V. Sazanov, as
  discussed on the FOM (Foundations Of Mathematics) list?  Why couldn't
  we just have 2^N instantiations or computations, where N is a very
  large number?


 I would say infinity is all what mathematics is about. Take any theorem
 in arithmetic, like any number is the sum of four square, or there is
 no pair of number having a ratio which squared gives two, etc.
 And I am not talking about analysis, or the use of complex analysis in
 number theory (cf zeta), or category theory (which relies on very high
 infinite) without posing any conceptual problem (no more than
 elsewhere).

When you say infinity is what math is all about, I think this is the
same thing as I mean when I say that invariance is what math is all
about.  But in actuality we find only local invariance, because of our
finiteness.  You have said a similar thing recently about comp.  But
here you seem to be talking about induction, concluding something about
*all* numbers.  Why is this needed in comp?  Is not your argument based
on Robinson's Q without induction?

 Even constructivist and intuitionist accept infinity, although
 sometimes under the form of potential infinity (which is all we need
 for G and G* and all third person point of view, but is not enough for
 having mathematical semantics, and then the first person (by UDA) is
 really linked to an actual infinity. But those, since axiomatic set
 theory does no more pose any interpretative problem.
 True, I heard about some ultrafinitist would would like to avoid
 infinity, but until now, they do have conceptual problem (like the fact
 that they need notion of fuzzy high numbers to avoid the fact that for
 each number has a successor. Imo, this is just philosophical play
 having no relation with both theory and practice in math.


  The UDA is not precise enough for me, maybe because I'm a
  mathematician?
  I'm waiting for the interview, via the roadmap.

 UDA is a problem for mathematicians, sometimes indeed. The reason is
 that although it is a proof, it is not a mathematical proof. And some
 mathematician have a problem with non mathematical proof. But UDA *is*
 the complete proof. I have already explain on this list (years ago)
 that although informal, it is rigorous. The first version of it were
 much more complex and technical, and it has taken years to suppress
 eventually any non strictly needed difficulties.
 I have even coined an expression the 1004 fallacy (alluding to Lewis
 Carroll), to describe argument using unnecessary rigor or abnormally
 precise term with respect to the reasoning.
 So please, don't hesitate to tell me what is not precise enough for
 you. Just recall UDA is not part of math. It is part of cognitive
 science and physics, and computer science.
 The lobian interview does not add one atom of rigor to the UDA, albeit
 it adds constructive features so as to make possible an explicit
 derivation of the physical laws (and more because it attached the
 quanta to extended qualia). Now I extract only the logic of the certain
 propositions and I show that it has already it has a strong quantum
 perfume, enough to get an arithmetical quantum logic, and then the
 rest gives mathematical conjectures. (One has been recently solved by a
 young mathematician).

 Bruno


 http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/

What is the non-mathematical part of UDA?  The part that uses Church
Thesis?  When I hear non-mathematical I hear non-rigor.  Define
rigor that is non-mathematical.  I guess if you do then you've been
mathematical about it.  I don't understand.

Tom


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread 1Z


Bruno Marchal wrote:
 Le 05-sept.-06, à 15:38, 1Z a écrit :

 
  The conscious computations, on the other hand, are there and
  self-aware
 
  Not really. They are just possibilities.
 
   even though we cannot interact with them, just as all the statues in
  a block of marble would be conscious
  if statues were conscious and being embedded in marble did not render
  them unconscious.
 
  But that gets to the heart of the paradox. You are suggesting that
  conscious
  computations are still conscious even thought hey don't exst and
  are mere possiiblities! That is surely a /reductio/ of one of your
  premisses


 The everything-lister, with or without comp, takes as natural the idea
 that all possibilities exist, and that actuality is just a possibility
 viewed from that possibility.

Of course it is not natural, or we would not
have two separate words for possible and actual.


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Russell Standish

On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 01:44:35PM -0700, Hal Finney wrote:
 
 Russell Standish writes:
  Why do you say this? Surely physical supervenience is simply
  supervenience on some physical object. Physical objects are spread
  across the multiverse, and are capable of reacting to all
  counterfactuals presented to it.
 
  Inside views are local - but the whole shebang must be spread across
  the Multiverse.
 
 I suppose it depends on your definitions.  As I suggested, supervenience
 in a single world model means that consciousness depends on local physical
 activity, and not on causally unconnected events.  In a multiverse,
 actions in parallel worlds are causally unconnected to actions here.
 It seems rather odd to say that the supervenience thesis says that
 whether my computer is conscious depends on what is happening in some
 remote parallel universe.
 
 I also think there are problems with this notion that objects are spread
 across the multiverse, and in particular that all counterfactuals
 are tested.  It's not clear to me that we can unambiguously define
 the counterpart to this particular object in an arbitrary multiverse.
 For very near or similar multiverses it may seem unproblematic,
 while for extremely far or different multiverses there will obviously
 be no counterparts.  There would probably be a gray area in the middle
 in which an object was related to one in our universe but perhaps not
 exactly the same.
 
 This exposes a difficulty with the notion that all counterfactuals are
 tested.  In the first place, many thought experiments aim to refrain from
 testing counterfactuals - Maudlin's is of this nature.  Something has
 to go seriously wrong with Maudlin's scenario for counterfactuals to
 be tested.  In the second place, many counterfactuals may be bizarre
 and unlikely, so that the circumstances under which they are tested may
 require extremely strange events.  These situations would suggest that
 such counterfactuals will only be tested in relatively remote parts of
 the multiverse, parts quite different from our own.  And then we have
 to ask, is it really the same machine that is being tested?
 
 And by same here, I think we mean more than just designed the same
 or isomorphic - we mean that it has some kind of shared identity,
 that in some sense this *is* the machine we see in our universe, just
 exposed to different inputs.  Given the problems I mentioned with this
 notion of identity across the multiverse, it's not clear that this
 concept makes sense.
 
 Hal Finney

Take an object, say this coffee cup that is sitting on my desk in
front of me. It was created a few years ago in some vitreous furnace
in a factory. Ever since then, it has been a part of all those universes
that share the history of this coffee cup's creation (except of course
those in which the cup has been destroyed).

Sure there will be borderline cases - eg the cup smashed, but
strangely retaining the form of the cup and so on, but I would argue
that these borderline cases are of small measure relative to the
universes in which the cup exists or doesn't exist in an unproblematic
way.

This satisfies your shared identity requirement. It is more than
simply being isomorphic - it has shared history. All counterfactuals
*compatible with* that coffee cup's existence will be experienced by
the coffee cup.

All physical objects have this identity property across the Multiverse
(not covering the Multiverse, but occupying a non-zero measure slice
of it). We had this debate recently about whether persons could have
this identity property or not - with me being somewhat underwhelmed by
David Parfitt's arguments on this subject, but the situation is quite
clear with physical objects.

With physical supervenience, it is possible for the same person to
supervene on multiple physical objects. What is disallowed is multiple
persons to supervene on the same physical object.


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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Peter Jones writes:

 Bruno Marchal wrote:
  Le 05-sept.-06, à 15:38, 1Z a écrit :
 
  
   The conscious computations, on the other hand, are there and
   self-aware
  
   Not really. They are just possibilities.
  
even though we cannot interact with them, just as all the statues in
   a block of marble would be conscious
   if statues were conscious and being embedded in marble did not render
   them unconscious.
  
   But that gets to the heart of the paradox. You are suggesting that
   conscious
   computations are still conscious even thought hey don't exst and
   are mere possiiblities! That is surely a /reductio/ of one of your
   premisses
 
 
  The everything-lister, with or without comp, takes as natural the idea
  that all possibilities exist, and that actuality is just a possibility
  viewed from that possibility.
 
 Of course it is not natural, or we would not
 have two separate words for possible and actual.

Where does the idea that conscious computations might only be potentially 
conscious come from? If it isn't actually conscious, then it isn't a conscious 
computation. It so happens that all the conscious beings of which we are 
aware in nature interact with their environment most of the time, but even 
if such interaction is necessary for consciousness, you could make the inputs 
part of a larger system, which is then inputless. 

Stathis Papaioannou
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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Russell Standish

On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 12:25:53PM +0200, Bruno Marchal wrote:
 
 
 Le 06-sept.-06, à 10:48, Russell Standish a écrit :
 
  On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 12:25:10AM -0700, Hal Finney wrote:
  I'd think that in the context of a multiverse, physical supervenience
  would say that whether consciousness is instantiated would depend only
  on physical conditions here, at this point in the multiverse, and 
  would
  not depend on conditions elsewhere.  It would be a sort of locality
  condition for the multiverse.
 
  Why do you say this? Surely physical supervenience is simply
  supervenience on some physical object. Physical objects are spread
  across the multiverse, and are capable of reacting to all
  counterfactuals presented to it.
 
 
 I agree with Hal Finney objection. A simpler one is that if the 
 physics needed is of the type MW or quantum (without collapse), then IF 
 this is relevant for solving the maudlin's paradox then a quantum 
 physical system should NOT been turing emulable.
 
 Put in another way: suppose that a quantum system is conscious, and 
 that comp is correct. Then a classical computer emulation of the 
 quantum system should be conscious, but for this one only the classical 
 counterfactual can play a role, and Maudlin's paradox will reappear at 
 that level.

This simplest way of addressing this is to use your dovetailer instead
of quantum multiverses, which tends to confuse people, and get
associated with quantum mysticism. The dovetailer is obviously
computable, but not the internal trace of one of its branches. (A
point you have frequently made).

In fact lets go one further and write a program that prints out all
combinations of 10^{30} bits in Library of Babel style. This is more
than enough information to encode all possible histories of neuronal
activity of a human brain, so most of us would bet this level of
substitution would satisfy yes doctor.

So does this mean that the entire library of babel is conscious, or
the dovetailer program (which is about 5 lines of Fortran) is
conscious? To me it is an emphatic no! Does it mean that one of the
10^{30} length bitstrings is conscious? Again I also say no. The only
possible conscious thing is the subcollection of bitstrings that
corresponds to the actions of a program emulating a person under all
possible inputs. It will have complexity substantially less than
10^{30}, but substantially greater than the 5 line dovetailer.


  But I think we are headed in the direction of whether computable
  Multiverses really satisfy what we mean by computationalism. If
  someone copies the entirety of reality, do I still survive in a folk
  psychology sense. I am still confused on this point.
 
 How could you not survive that?
 
 Bruno
 

If I have inoperable brain cancer in reality A, and someone duplicates
reality A to reality B, then unfortunately I still have inoperable brain
cancer in reality B.

Maybe I'm being too literal...

I can also never experience your famous Washinton-Moscow teleportation
excercise - in reality B I am still stuck in Brussels.

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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Russell Standish writes:

 With physical supervenience, it is possible for the same person to
 supervene on multiple physical objects. What is disallowed is multiple
 persons to supervene on the same physical object.

That is what is usually understood, but there is no logical reason why 
the relationship between the physical and the mental cannot be 
one-many, in much the same way as a written message can have 
several meanings depending on its interpretation. Whatever physical 
supervenience is, it isn't like the usual causal relationships between 
objects.

Stathis Papaioannou
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RE: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Stathis Papaioannou

Russell Standish writes:

 In fact lets go one further and write a program that prints out all
 combinations of 10^{30} bits in Library of Babel style. This is more
 than enough information to encode all possible histories of neuronal
 activity of a human brain, so most of us would bet this level of
 substitution would satisfy yes doctor.
 
 So does this mean that the entire library of babel is conscious, or
 the dovetailer program (which is about 5 lines of Fortran) is
 conscious? To me it is an emphatic no! Does it mean that one of the
 10^{30} length bitstrings is conscious? Again I also say no. The only
 possible conscious thing is the subcollection of bitstrings that
 corresponds to the actions of a program emulating a person under all
 possible inputs. It will have complexity substantially less than
 10^{30}, but substantially greater than the 5 line dovetailer.

Why do you disagree that one of the bitstrings is conscious? It seems to 
me that the subcollection of bitstrings that corresponds to the actions of 
a program emulating a person under all possible inputs is a collection of 
multiple individually conscious entities, each of which would be just as 
conscious if all the others were wiped out.
 
Stathis Papaioannou
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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Russell Standish

On Thu, Sep 07, 2006 at 11:19:47AM +1000, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
 
 Russell Standish writes:
 
  In fact lets go one further and write a program that prints out all
  combinations of 10^{30} bits in Library of Babel style. This is more
  than enough information to encode all possible histories of neuronal
  activity of a human brain, so most of us would bet this level of
  substitution would satisfy yes doctor.
  
  So does this mean that the entire library of babel is conscious, or
  the dovetailer program (which is about 5 lines of Fortran) is
  conscious? To me it is an emphatic no! Does it mean that one of the
  10^{30} length bitstrings is conscious? Again I also say no. The only
  possible conscious thing is the subcollection of bitstrings that
  corresponds to the actions of a program emulating a person under all
  possible inputs. It will have complexity substantially less than
  10^{30}, but substantially greater than the 5 line dovetailer.
 
 Why do you disagree that one of the bitstrings is conscious? It seems to 
 me that the subcollection of bitstrings that corresponds to the actions of 
 a program emulating a person under all possible inputs is a collection of 
 multiple individually conscious entities, each of which would be just as 
 conscious if all the others were wiped out.
  
 Stathis Papaioannou

It is simply the absurdity of a recording being conscious. I know we
are on opposite sides of that fence. The question is whether you can
see a difference between one and the other.

To recap - there are three things being talked about here:

1) The set of all strings, which can be generated by a dovetailer or
   similar simple program

 2) A single string capturing the trace of a conscious observer in a
   single history, which whilst enormously complex itself, can be
   played back by a trivial program, or by Maudlin's construction a
   counterfactual handling device in which only the trivial playback
   device is active.

3) A set of strings corresponding to the trace of a conscious observer
   over all possible histories. This can only be generated by a
   program equivalent to the original observer, however I suppose it
   can be stored (since it is still finite) on a vastly longer tape
   (2^{complexity observer=10^15 (say)} bits) and played back using a
   dovetailer. In fact one way of doing this might be to use a
   2^{10^30} length tape, and mark a 1 for all those traces generated
   by the original observer, and 0 for those that are not. Then the
   dovetailer can do a simple search on this immense tape to see
   whether a particular branch appears as a prefix to the binary
   expansion of any of the conscious traces. Then one can do a
   Maudlin-type argument. However, even this construction will fail in
   the presence of subjective immortality (eg QTI or
   COMP-immortality).

So the question is 1), 2) or 3) conscious. I would  argue only 3) is,
particularly with immortality. I'll leave this thread for now - I have
some more ideas based on physicality being phenomenal, which rules out
a Maudlin-like construction of the 1) (and possibly 3) case.

Cheers

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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Brent Meeker

Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
 Brent Meeker writes:
 
 
 If every computation is implemented everywhere anyway, this is equivalent
 to the situation where every computation exists as a platonic object, or
 every computation exists implemented on some computer or brain in a
 material multiverse.
 
 But if implementing a particular computation depends on an observer, or a 
 dicitonary, or somesuch, it is not the case that everything implements 
 every
  computation unless it can be shown that evey dictionary somehow exists as
 well.
 
 
 The computation provides its own observer if it is conscious, by definition.
 
 I'm always suspicious of things that are true by definition.  How exactly 
 does
 an observer provide meaning or whatever it is that makes a computation?  And 
 how
 does consciousness fulfill this function.  I, in my conscious thoughts,
 certainly don't observe the computation that my brain performs.  In fact my
 thoughts seem to spring from nowhere more or less spontaneously in coherent
 trains or as prompted by perceptions.
 
 
 Let's not try to define consciousness at all, but agree that we know what it 
 is
 from personal experience. Computationalism is the theory that consciousness 
 arises
 as a result of computer activity: that our brains are just complex computers, 
 and
 in the manner of computers, could be emulated by another computer, so that
 computer would experience consciousness in the same way we do. (This theory 
 may be
 completely wrong, and perhaps consciousness is due to a substance secreted by 
 a
 special group of neurons or some other such non-computational process, but 
 let's
 leave that possibility aside for now). What we mean by one computer emulating
 another is that there is an isomorphism between the activity of two physical
 computers, so that there is a mapping function definable from the states of
 computer A to the states of computer B. If this mapping function is fully
 specified we can use it practically, for example to run Windows on an x86
 processor emulated on a Power PC processor running Mac OS. If you look at the
 Power PC processor and the x86 processor running side by side it would be
 extremely difficult to see them doing the same computation, but according 
 to the
 mapping function inherent in the emulation program, they are, and they still 
 would
 be a thousand years from now even if the human race is extinct.
 
 In a similar fashion, there is an isomorphism between a computer and any other
 physical system, even if the mapping function is unknown and extremely
 complicated. 

I don't see how there can be an isomorphism between any two systems.  Without 
some
structural constraint that seems to throw away the iso part and simply leave a
morphism.

That's not very interesting for non-conscious computations, because
 they are only useful or meaningful if they can be observed or interact with 
 their
 environment. However, a conscious computation is interesting all on its own. 
 It
 might have a fuller life if it can interact with other minds, but its meaning 
 is
 not contingent on other minds the way a non-conscious computation's is. 

Empirically, all of the meaning seems to be referred to things outside the
computation.  So if the conscious computation thinks of the word chair it 
doesn't
provide any meaning unless there is a chair - outside the computation.  So it 
is not
clear to me that meaning can be supplied from the inside in this way.  I 
think this
is where Bruno talks about the required level of substitution and allows that 
the
level may be the brain at a neural level PLUS all the outside world.  So that 
within
this simulation the simulated brain is conscious *relative* to the rest of the
simulated world.

I know 
 this because I am conscious, however difficult it may be to actually define 
 that
 term.

But do you know you would be conscious if you could not interact with the world?
That seems doubtful to me.  Of course you can close your eyes, stop your ears, 
etc
and still experience consciousness - for a while - but perhaps not indefinitely 
and
maybe not even very long.

 The conclusion I therefore draw from computationalism is that every possible
 conscious computation is implemented necessarily if any physical process 
 exists.

That would seem to require mappings that are not isomorphisms.

 This seems to me very close to saying that every conscious computation is
 implemented necessarily in Platonia, as the physical reality seems hardly
 relevant.

It seems to me to be very close to a reductio ad absurdum.

Brent Meeker


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Re: computationalism and supervenience

2006-09-06 Thread Brent Meeker

Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
 Peter Jones writes:
 
 
 But if implementing a particular computation depends on an observer, or 
 a dicitonary, or somesuch, it is not the case that everything implements
 every computation unless it can be shown that evey dictionary somehow
 exists as well.
 
 The computation provides its own observer if it is conscious, by
 definition.
 
 But providing its own observer, if computationalism is true, must be a
 computational property, ie. a property possesed only by particular
 programmes. However, if any system can be interpreted as running every
 programme, everysystems has the self-observation property, if interpretedt
 he right way.
 
 IOW, one you introduce interpretation-dependence, you can't get away from
 it.
 
 That's right: if there is at least one physical system, then every 
 computation
 is implemented, although we can only interact with them at our level if they
 are implemented on a conventional brain or computer, which means we have the
 means to interpret them at hand. The non-conscious computations are there 
 in
 the trivial sense that a block of marble contains every possible statue of a
 given size.
 
 All the computations are merely potential, in the absence of interpreters and
 dictionaries, whether conscious or not.
 
 
 The conscious computations, on the other hand, are there and self-aware
 
 Not really. They are just possibilities.
 
 
 even though we cannot interact with them, just as all the statues in a block
 of marble would be conscious if statues were conscious and being embedded in
 marble did not render them unconscious.
 
 But that gets to the heart of the paradox. You are suggesting that conscious 
 computations are still conscious even thought hey don't exst and are mere
 possiiblities! That is surely a /reductio/ of one of your premisses
 
 
 A non-conscious computation cannot be *useful* without the 
 manual/interpretation,
 and in this sense could be called just a potential computation, but a 
 conscious
 computation is still *conscious* even if no-one else is able to figure this 
 out or
 interact with it. If a working brain in a vat were sealed in a box and sent 
 into
 space, it could still be dreaming away even after the whole human race and all
 their information on brain function are destroyed in a supernova explosion. 
 As far
 as any alien is concerned who comes across it, the brain might be completely
 inscrutable, but that would not make the slightest difference to its conscious
 experience.

Suppose the aliens re-implanted the brain in a human body so they could 
interact with
it.  They ask it what is was dreaming all those years?  I think the answer 
might
be, Years?  What years?  It was just a few seconds ago I was in the hospital 
for an
appendectomy.  What happened?  And who are you guys?

 
 then it can be seen as implementing more than one computation
 simultaneously during the given interval.
 
 AFAICS that is only true in terms of dictionaries.
 
 Right: without the dictionary, it's not very interesting or relevant to 
 *us*.
 If we were to actually map a random physical process onto an arbitrary
 computation of interest, that would be at least as much work as building and
 programming a conventional computer to carry out the computation. However,
 doing the mapping does not make a difference to the *system* (assuming we
 aren't going to use it to interact with it). If we say that under a certain
 interpretation - here it is, printed out on paper - the system is 
 implementing
 a conscious computation, it would still be implementing that computation if 
 we
 had never determined and printed out the interpretation.

And if you added the random values of the physical process as an appendix in the
manual, would the manual itself then be a computation (the record problem)?  If 
so
how would you tell if it were a conscious computation?

 
 The problem remains that the system's own self awareness, or lack thereof, is
 not observer-relative. something has to give.
 
 
 Self-awareness is observer-relative with the observer being oneself. Where is 
 the
 difficulty?

Self-awareness is awareness of some specific aspect of a construct called 
myself.
It is not strictly reflexive awareness of the being aware of being aware...  So 
in
the abstract computation it is just this part of a computation having some 
relation
we identify as awareness relative to some other part of the computation.  I 
think
it is a matter of constructing a narrative for memory in which I is just 
another
player.

Brent Meeker



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Re: The Mathematico-Cognition Reality Theory (MCRT) Ver 6.0

2006-09-06 Thread Brent Meeker

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
...
 Different levels of Causality
 
 Brain processes are enacting things which are *mathematical* in nature
 - 'algorithms' (See 'Functionalism').Mathematical entities are
 abstracted patterns.  But abstracted patterns themselves (like
 'algorithms') don't exist directly inside physical causal networks,
 only particular instances of them do.  This is clear by pointing to the
 fact that many different brains could enact the *same* computation
 (algorithm) - the philosophical term is that the algorithm is 'multiply
 realizable'.So the particular physical processes in the brain can't
 be *identical* to the mathematical entity (the algorithm) itself.

But is it true that different brains can implement the same algorithm?  It 
seems it
is only true because we abstract a certain algorithm from it's various
representation, e.g. as written on paper.  Every actual realization, in brains 
or
computer or on paper is actually slightly different at a microscopic level at 
least.
We call it the same algorithm because we're abstracting a common 
functionality or
purpose.

 
 It was an argument similar to this that led to the demise of the
 original 'Identity Theory' of mind (a theory which attempted to
 identity mental states with physical processes). Again, the trouble is
 that many different brain states could be associated with the *same*
 algorithm (or have the same mental states) which shows that physical
 processes cannot be identified with mathematical entities in any simple
 way. 

But this only shows that mathematical objects exist in the sense that chair 
exists;
as a abstraction from chairs.  So chair isn't identical with any particular 
chair.

The weaker 'Token Identity' theories concede this, but still
 attempt to equate mental states with physical processes. Couldn't one
 simply say that there's some general high-level properties of physical
 matter which can be equated with the algorithm, and hence dispense with
 ghostly mathematical entities? The reason one can't really say this
 boils down to Occam's razor and inference to the best explanation
 again. Attempting to replace the concept of 'algorithm' with some high
 level properties of physical matter is results in descriptions that are
 enormously complex and unwieldy. 

But you can look at it the other way around.  The algorithm is already the 
general
high-level property that is common to all the brains and computers implementing.



 
 The Mathematico-Cognition Ontology

This looks more like botany than ontology.

Brent Meeker


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