Beyond Zero and One (Andrew Smart) / quote 94 of 171
There is no computation inside a computer
In an email discussion I had with Riccardo Manzotti, he writes: We use logic and computation to build artifacts—from chairs to spaceships. We need logic and computation as an extension of our innate mental tools. They help us to achieve the precision and generality that we need to build complex artifacts. We need reading and writing to build cathedrals and armies. Likewise, we need logic and computation to build an airplane or a skyscraper, or to design and build a computer or a robot. But we do not have to believe that the computer or the robot is made of our logic and our computations. There is no logic or computation inside a computer, no more than there is inside another machine. I may say, metaphorically, that inside a machine there are a lot of computations because I used them to devise that machine. Likewise, I may say that I put a lot of time, sweat, and such, inside a wall. But we do not have to take such metaphors for realities.