Yes, its the mind-body problem yet again(
mind-body), Wait! didn't Descartes figure all that out??? I am doing a series of pieces based on this perennial philosophical issue. I need to send out some emails to various cognitive scientists and philosophers to ask their opinions about representing this visually. I think that will make some cool interactions and interesting stuff for for people to read about in conjunction with the paintings. Here is one called software. The child is breaking apart old hard-drives for scrap, and the woman is having her head analyzed by an electric phrenology machine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology
So is it your opinion that there is no software, only the illusion of software created by the functioning of hardware?
ReplyDeleteWow! My first comment!!!!!!!!!!!! I think its all physical but that the software is a level of description that describes a real pattern. Ontologically I am a monist, epistemologicaly I a believe that multiple levels of description are necessary to understand reality.
DeleteBut don't you think it would be awesome if programmers had to describe what they were doing only in terms of hardware (ontology)? Like, "This code will make this circuit connect and this pixel light up"?
DeleteIn other news, the psychology teacher at my school has a big poster of that phrenology lady on his door.