Computing Machinery and Emergence: The Aesthetics and Metaphysics of Video Games

Authors: Cogburn, Jon¹; Silcox, Mark²

Source: Minds and Machines, Volume 15, Number 1, February 2005 , pp. 73-89(17)

Publisher: Springer

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $47.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

We build on some of Daniel Dennett’s ideas about predictive indispensability to characterize properties of video games discernable by people as computationally emergent if, and only if: (1) they can be instantiated by a computing machine, and (2) there is no algorithm for detecting instantiations of them. We then use this conception of emergence to provide support to the aesthetic ideas of Stanley Fish and to illuminate some aspects of the Chomskyan program in cognitive science.

Keywords: aesthetics; computability; computational theory of mind; emergence; metaphysics; video games

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11023-004-1168-5

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy and Linguistics Program, Louisiana State University, 106 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA, USA, 70803, Email: jcogbu1@lsu.edu 2: Department of Philosophy, Auburn University, 6080 Haley Center, Auburn, AL, USA, 36849, Email: silcoma@auburn.edu

Publication date: 2005-02-01