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(i) Read the input symbol x.
(ii) Compare x with z, the intenal state of the machine.
(iii) Write the appropriate output symbol y.
(iv) Change the internal state z to the new state z¢.
(v) Repeat the above sequence with a new input state x¢.
Similarly, the essential function of Maxwell's Demon can be specified by
five operations equivalent to those above:
(i) Read the velocity v of the upcoming molecule M.
(ii) Compare (mv 2 /2) with the mean energy
mv 2 /2
(temperature T) of, say,
the cooler container (internal state T).
(iii) Open the aperture if (mv 2 /2) is greater than
mv 2 /2
; otherwise keep it
closed.
(iv) Change the internal state T to the new (cooler) state T¢.
(v) Repeat the above sequence with a new uncoming molecule M¢.
Since the translation of the terms occurring in the correspondingly
labeled points is obvious, with the presentation of these two lists I have
completed my proof.
How can we make use of our insight that Cybernetics is the science of
regulation, computation, ordering, and entropy retardation? We may, of
course, apply our insight to the system that is generally understood to be
the cause célèbre for regulation, computation, ordering, and entropy retar-
dation, namely, the human brain.
Rather than following the physicists who order their problems according
to the number of objects involved (“The one-body problem”, “The two-
body problem”, “The three-body problem”, etc.), I shall order our problems
according to the number of brains involved by discussing now “The one-
brain problem”, “The two-brain problem”, “The many-brain problem”, and
“The all-brain problem”.
1. The Single-Brain Problem: The Brain Sciences
It is clear that if the brain sciences do not want to degenerate into a physics
or chemistry of living—or having once lived—tissue they must develop a
theory of the brain: T(B). But, of course, this theory must be written by a
brain: B(T). This means that this theory must be constructed so as to write
itself T(B(T)).
Such a theory will be distinct in a fundamental sense from, say, physics
which addresses itself to a (not quite) successful description of a “subject-
less world” in which even the observer is not supposed to have a place. This
leads me now to pronounce my Theorem Number Three:
“The Laws of Nature are written by man. The laws of biology must write
themselves.”
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