2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
7. A Software-Inspired Constructive View of Nature
Author : Russ Abbott
Published in: On the Cognitive, Ethical, and Scientific Dimensions of Artificial Intelligence
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
TheSaying thatx
reduces toy
typically implies thatx
is nothing more thany
or nothing over and abovey
.
y
to which an x
reduces consists most often of x
’s components. But virtually nothing can be reduced if to be “nothing more than” or “nothing over and above” its components means to have no properties other than those of its components, individually or aggregated. An atom has properties other than those of its quarks and electrons. A protein, a biological cell, and a hurricane—not to mention such man-made entities as houses, mobile phones, and automobiles—all have properties over and above their components. The properties of most entities depend on both those of the entity’s components and on how those components are put together. (That would seem obvious, but perhaps it’s not.)