Re: Can anyone explain this quote?


"Craig Feinstein" <cafeinst@xxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:1133194064.658481.63000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> John F wrote:
> > Craig Feinstein <cafeinst@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> > : "If the human brain were so simple
> > : That we could understand it,
> > : We would be so simple
> > : That we couldn't."
> > : Emerson M. Pugh
> >
> > It means that if xUy is the relation
> > x understands y, then U has no fixed
> > point (at least not in the domain of
> > human brains).
> > --
> > John Forkosh ( mailto: j@xxxxx where j=john and f=forkosh )
>
> Does anyone believe the quote?
>
Any higher level system needs some basic machinery it is based on. The
question is, is it possible to create a system which has full information
about itself contained in itself.
Consider such a system. Does it know that it knows the full information
about itself? Not yet? No problem, it can be added to it. Does the system
now know, that it was added to it the knowledge, that it knows the full
information about itself? Not yet? No problem, it can be added to it ...

In my eyes there is a huge amount of hints towards believing, that the quote
is right.

Claudio
P.S. As I understand it, the simplest explanation of the quote is:
Emerson M. Pugh intended to express, that he believes, that it is impossible
for us to understand how our own brain works.
If the brain were very simple, it would be not capable of understanding
anything, so also not capable of understanding itself.
If the brain were very complex and complicated, the available power of
understanding will be not enough to see all of the complexity behind it.



.

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