Central and East European
Society for Phenomenology

Repository | Series | Book | Chapter

200453

Biological and artificial machines

Vít Bartoš

pp. 201-210

Abstract

This article deals with the basic question of the design principles of biological entities and artificial ones expressed by Gerald Edelman's question: "Is evolution a Turing machine?" There is a general belief asserting that the main difference between evolutionary computation and Turing model lies in the fact that biological entities become infinitely diverse (analog) and fundamentally indeterminate states. I am of the opinion that this difference is not the issue. Differentiation between products of evolution and human-formed machines lies in the physical structure of biological entities linked to the scaling of all physical levels. This architecture works as multi-domain value system whose most basic function is the categorization of events entering the field of interaction of the organism. Human thinking as a product of evolution is a prime example of this process. But those assumptions are not in conflict with another assumption which is claiming that even biological entities are in fact kinds of computational machines.

Publication details

Published in:

Romportl Jan, Zackova Eva, Kelemen Jozef (2015) Beyond artificial intelligence: the disappearing human-machine divide. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 201-210

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-09668-1_15

Full citation:

Bartoš Vít (2015) „Biological and artificial machines“, In: J. Romportl, E. Zackova & J. Kelemen (eds.), Beyond artificial intelligence, Dordrecht, Springer, 201–210.