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Full Idea
In the simplest Turing-machine version of functionalism (Putnam 1967), mental states are identified with the total Turing-machine state, involving a machine table and its inputs and outputs.
Gist of Idea
Simple machine-functionalism says mind just is a Turing machine
Source
Ned Block (Troubles with Functionalism [1978], p. 70)
Book Ref
'The Philosophy of Mind', ed/tr. Beakley,B /Ludlow P [MIT 1992], p.70
A Reaction
This obviously invites the question of why mental states would be conscious and phenomenal, given that modern computers are devoid of same, despite being classy Turing machines.
| 3979 | The Turing Machine is the best idea yet about how the mind works [Fodor on Turing] |
| 3193 | Turing showed that logical rules can be specified computationally and mechanically [Turing, by Rey] |
| 3498 | Computation isn't a natural phenomenon, it is a way of seeing phenomena [Searle] |
| 2577 | Simple machine-functionalism says mind just is a Turing machine [Block] |
| 2580 | A Turing machine, given a state and input, specifies an output and the next state [Block] |