Re: virus: real world?

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 08:40:11 -0600 (CST)


On Fri, 17 Jan 1997 jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com wrote:

> Dave Pape wrote:
>
> > If you could model a conscious agent in a computer, and they got hurt when
> > they hit your (information only, pattern only) model of a wall, they'd think
> > that the wall was solid. When in fact it'd just be information.
>
> Would this necesarily mean, though, that the computer agent would not be
> able to pass through the "wall"? It may recieve the feedback that there is
> a "wall" there, but is it incentive enough to try a different direction,
> or to perhaps prevent the agent passing through that space?

Yes, raw information can be solid w.r.t. to raw information. The
software has to be configured properly.

I think you wouldn't like it if the email you were writing *wasn't* solid
w.r.t. the operating system, or the program you were composing it in.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
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