Link to originalFoundations of computational functionalism
Information … discernible differences
Meaning … relationship to changes in other information
Functions … invariance in changes (mapping pattern → pattern, modelling transitions)
Objects … are constructed over invariances in relationships (functionalism)
Knowledge … representation of a model in a language, accurately describing predictive/observational patterns (abstract reasoning only or empirical)
“When we construct an object, we construct it in our own mind as a model of something. The model that we construct it of is the behaviour that we observe - functions that things are performing in the world. There is no hidden essence, but the only thing we have access to is observed behaviour.”
→ Every object we construct in our mind is a model of some kind of functionailty.
→ We impose the separation through objects and get causality as a result.
Hard to defeat the argument that we can’t know objects directly, but only by their behaviour / relation to other objects.
functionalism is a theory of epistemology