rapaport@sunybcs.uucp (William J. Rapaport) (05/06/88)
In article <28437@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> dvm@yale.UUCP (Drew Mcdermott) writes: > >Suppose we have a robot that models the world temporally, and uses >its model to predict what will happen... Now suppose it is in a >situation that includes various objects, including an object it calls R, >which it knows denotes itself. >The robot could apply various devices for making causal prediction, but they >will all come up against the fact that some of the causal antecedents of R's >behavior *are situated in the very causal analysis box* that is trying to >analyze them. The robot might believe that R is a robot, and hence that >a good way to predict R's behavior is to simulate it on a faster CPU, but >this strategy will be in vain, because this particular robot is itself. >... >Hence any system that is sophisticated enough to model situations that its own >physical realization takes part in must flag the symbol describing that >realization as a singularity with respect to causality. Followers of this debate should, at this point, familiarize themselves with the literature on "essential indexicals" and "quasi-indexicality", philosophical analyses designed for precisely such issues about self-reference. Here are some pertinent references, each with pointers to the literature: Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1966), " `He': A Study in the Logic of Self-Consciousness," Ratio 8: 130-157. Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1967), "On the Logic of Self-Knowledge," Nous 1: 9-21. Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1967), "Indicators and Quasi-Indicators," American Philosophical Quarterly 4: 85-100. Castaneda, Hector-Neri (1968), "On the Logic of Attributions of Self-Knowledge to Others," Journal of Philosophy 64: 439-456. Perry, John (1979), "The Problem of the Essential Indexical," Nous 13: 3-21. Rapaport, William J. (1986), "Logical Foundations for Belief Representation," Cognitive Science 10: 371-422. William J. Rapaport Assistant Professor Dept. of Computer Science||internet: rapaport@cs.buffalo.edu SUNY Buffalo ||bitnet: rapaport@sunybcs.bitnet Buffalo, NY 14260 ||uucp: {decvax,watmath,rutgers}!sunybcs!rapaport (716) 636-3193, 3180 ||