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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
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    Perspectives
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that There is no strong reason to be confident that real thought can only be located in continuous-state machines.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The claim that real thought requires a continuous-state machine requires justification that has not been provided.
      ?

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    • 2.It is not established that human beings are not themselves essentially discrete-state machines.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Putnam's multiple realizability thesis establishes that mental states are defined by functional organization, not physical substrate.
      ?

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    • 2.If mental states are substrate-neutral, then discrete-state machines instantiating the right functional relations satisfy the conditions for genuine thought.
      ?

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    • 3.No empirical or conceptual argument has demonstrated that continuous-state dynamics are part of the relevant functional organization for cognition.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Churchland's neuroscientific findings show that neural firing is an all-or-nothing threshold phenomenon, making biological cognition itself fundamentally discrete at the signal level.
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    • 2.If human brains implement cognition through discrete spike-based encoding, the continuous/discrete distinction cannot be the principled barrier against machine thought.
      ?

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