(no subject)

James Wynn · 27 Jan 2005, 13:21 · from 2005-January.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Thu Jan 27 13:21:47 2005
Subject: (urth) (no subject)
References: <197.37356526.2f2aaa00 at aol.com>
Message-ID: <016001c504b6$28d16e20$4c1e4b0a at vcorp.ad.vrsn.com>

>I think in 1972 toolmaking was considered to be the defining
>characteristic of Hom Sap. It was thought that tools cane first,
>brains later. Not sure that that is still the case.

Hmmmm...I hadn't thought of the possible point Wolfe may be making about
humanity and the ability to use tools. Is he asking whether the Annese's
inability to use tools prevents them from being human regardless of how
closely they mimic us?

Is Wolfe taking on the Turing requirements for Artificial Intelligence [if a
machine is convincingly human enough, then it is self-aware] and applying
them to Biology?

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