Joshua Loo (Somerville College): 'Computationalism and complexity theory'
Abstract: Computationalists, to a first approximation, claim that a mind is a computer, in at least some interesting sense. Theoretical computer scientists analyse the relative difficulty of problems in terms of their ‘computational complexity’. The study of complexity theory plays a central rôle in the study of physically implemented computational systems. We might expect that computationalists should give complexity theory the same rôle in the study of mind. I argue otherwise; complexity theory has some rôle to play in the study of mind, but not the same as in the study of physically implemented computational systems.
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Ockham Society Convenors: Jack Tristani, Yuxin Tang and Meredith Ross-James | Ockham Society Webpage
