From: Perry E.Metzger (perry@piermont.com)
Date: Mon Dec 01 2003 - 14:49:34 MST
"J. Andrew Rogers" <andrew@ceruleansystems.com> writes:
> On 12/1/03 5:28 AM, "Lawrence Foard" <entropy@farviolet.com> wrote:
>> On Mon, 1 Dec 2003, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>>> It's a computer, Jim, but not as we know it.
>>
>> I assume your talking about neural nets, not magical mystical macro
>> quantum computers?
>
> It doesn't matter. As far as I can tell, quantum computers have no
> computationally special properties beyond reducing the time complexity of
> some classes of algorithm. If you can do it on a quantum computer, you can
> do it on vanilla silicon. Quantum computing solves no problems that
> couldn't be solved before, though it makes some problems more tractable.
Exactly right. QCs aren't capable of doing anything TMs can't do --
they just reduce the time complexity class of many problems. Even if
the brain were a QC, it could still be mechanically simulated. The
only thing that would really damage the Strong AI hypothesis would be
the discovery of phenomena that were somehow non-modelable at work in
the brain -- but of course, we're unaware of ANY phenomena that are
non-modelable, let alone the phenomena in the brain.
-- Perry E. Metzger perry@piermont.com
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