[FRIAM] detritus from vFRIAM

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

I tried to post this on the vFRIAM chat, but wouldn't "take", so I am
posting it here: 

 

"Don't do this now, but .. as a favor to me, could you-guys devote some of
your shaving time this week to the proposition: "No system ever acts on its
own behalf."  My intuition is that whenever we investigate a system that
appears to act in its own behalf, we will find that it is pursuing a goal
that is short of the interest of the whole, but which will produce benefits
to the whole because of some property of the world in which it acts.  I
would love to hear a discussion among people trying to design a system that
acts on its own behalf. Can someone come up with a simple example of such a
system."  

 

I grant you that the question is not clear.

 

Thanks, 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

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