bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) (05/31/88)
Drew McDermott's lengthy posting included a curious nugget. Drew paints a scenario in which a robot engages in a simulation which includes the robot itself as a causal agent in the simulation. Drew asks, "What on earth could it mean for a system to figure out what it's doing by simulating itself?" I was captured by the notion of self-simulation, and started day-dreaming, imagining myself as an actor inside a simulation. I found that, as the director of the day-dream, I had to delegate free will to my simulated self. The movie free-runs, sans script. It was just like being asleep. So, perhaps a robot who engages in self-simulation is merely dreaming about itself. That's not so hard. I do it all the time. --Barry Kort
caasi@sdsu.UUCP (06/02/88)
In article <33245@linus.UUCP> writes: >I was captured by the notion of self-simulation, and started day-dreaming, >imagining myself as an actor inside a simulation. I found that, as the >director of the day-dream, I had to delegate free will to my simulated >self. The movie free-runs, sans script. It was just like being asleep. > >So, perhaps a robot who engages in self-simulation is merely dreaming >about itself. That's not so hard. I do it all the time. > >--Barry Kort Wasn't it Chuang-Tzu who wrote: Once I dreamt I was a butterfly. After I awoke, I didn't know if I was a man dreaming about being a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming about being a man.