next up previous
Next: Living computation: The present Up: Living Computation: The Past Previous: 1980's-2000's: The big big

The missing element

The story so far is one of machines designed in the image of the conscious minds of their creators--a single strictly serial process proceeding step by deliberate step, with nothing changing except as directed by the processor, with no need for coordination or communication, no peripheral or preconscious awareness, and so forth. Boundary conditions could be applied only before the computation began; when started it simply ran until finished. The machine had no stimulus-response ability, no interrupts, no hardware monitoring; as far as its functional repertoire was concerned, the machine not only could not control its `body', it wasn't even aware it had one.


next up previous
Next: Living computation: The present Up: Living Computation: The Past Previous: 1980's-2000's: The big big
http://keys.ccrcentral.net/ Mon Dec 31 13:57:25 MST 2001