Decision Making by Inanimate Objects?

Posted by kathe on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @09:12PM
from the self-post dept.

There are certain materials (some metal oxides, I think) which adapt to external stimulus quite like sentient beings. Does anyone know of such materials?

( 2 comments | on HN )

Re:Decision Making by Inanimate Objects? by ggm on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @10:10PM (#30850777)

the word "like" is your big mistake here. They react in a strict one-dimensional sense. No, it does not automatically uplift them into "THEY'RE ALIVE" because thats not how analogies work.

Sorry, but what they are doing is not 'stimulus-response' -Its physics. You mistake the label (stimulus) and the stimulus-response idea, for equalities. They are analogies.

A bi-metallic strip "responds" to temperature change by curling. Its "stimulus" is temperature. Its "response" is to curl. The basic mechanism is not sentience, its differential thermal expansion.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Decision Making by Inanimate Objects? by theideasmith on Tuesday March 29, 2022 @09:44PM (#30850618)

Spinoza understood thought and extension were unified. A change in extension is a change in thought and vv.

[ Parent | on HN ]