Where Computation Ends

In order to better understand the full implications of a computational model of mind, let us imagine what one might experience within a computational system. Computation in a digital context refers to the manipulation of bits of information by using formal operations to change their organization. The content of the information being processed cannot affect its reorganization. Even though we might think of information as having content, recall the technical meaning of the term information, in computational contexts. Consider the series of numbers above. The numbers have no greater content in any digital system than they do for you as you read them. The sequence of the numbers triggers specific mathematical operations, so that they have a functional role within the system but have no value or meaning with respect to anything else.