colonel@buffalo.CSNET ("Col. G. L. Sicherman") (09/29/86)
Ken Laws's analogy between Bureaucracy and Man--more precisely, Man's Mind--has been anticipated by Marvin Minsky. I do not have the reference; I think it was a rather broad article in a general science journal. As I recall, the theory that Minsky proposed lay somewhere between the lay concept of self and the Zen concept. It seemed to suggest that consciousness is an illusion to itself, but a genuine and observable phenomenon to an outside observer, characterizable with the metaphor of bureaucracy. Perhaps some Ailist reader can identify the article. Emergent consciousness has always been a hope of A.I. I side with those who suggest that consciousness depends on contact with the world ... even though I know some professors who seem to be counter-examples! :-)