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¡Damned!
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
 
2009-08-03, 17:50

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kraetos View Post
Unfortunately the electrical impulses analogy may cement the "computers are smart" misconception. Maybe not, though, since I could point out that while humans can learn things on their own, computers are helpless without software written and installed by humans.

*He then proceeded to tell me that there are clearly billions to be had if I could devise such a CPU. I told him he should stick with philosophy
Philosophy major? That explains it. Those cats are always looking for a Deus in the friggin Machina (), which I guess may explain his "but if it understands" comment.

Maybe a better analogy, though a little different, would be a Lite-Brite. You, as a programmer, provide the coordinates and colors of each peg. You may write "red" in the code, but the compiler (ostensibly a human, yes, but let's stretch it to say computer, since the human is just following your directions as a computer would) doesn't understand "red," being a human construct and all. Instead, it searches its databank for <red> and converts it into "its" language, which is 01101000100011. It sends the command to insert 01101000100011 at coordinate 000,001,057.

Ad infinitum until the desired end is achieved. It could be a flower, a bunny, or the letter G. The compiler doesn't know, and more importantly, doesn't care. There is no sense of beauty or satisfaction of a job well done. It does. Because you told it to.

So it goes.
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