ARTIFICIAL MINDS? Ron Cottam, Willy Ranson & Roger Vounckx The Evolutionary Processing Group Inter-University Micro-Electronics Center, Brussels, Belgium Communicating author: Ron Cottam: ricottam@etro.vub.ac.be ABSTRACT Classical analysis of large networked information-processing systems from a "quasi- external" point of view begins to create problems as the range of hierarchical structural scales is extended. Most particularly, the viability of deterministic distributed control becomes questionable in extended-scale temporally-dynamic (i.e. interesting!) networks. The "traditional" split between "body" and "mind" appears to be most particularly related to our mental incapacity to relate to large systems whose character is primarily distributed but whose characteristics collapse to those of a synchronous deterministic network when reduced to a unified perspective. The major problem in forming such a representation is the necessarily irrational coupling across multiple scales of a large disparate organization such as the brain and our consequent inability to formulate correctly a causal tree for the system. We investigate the implications of these difficulties beyond simply the establishment of an upper systemic scaling limit, and relate them to a recently recorded Windows Local Area Network browser election breakdown. Keywords: hierarchy, cross-scale, mind and body, rationality, emotion. INTRODUCTION How does it feel to be a bat, or a mosquito, or a bacterium, or a virus? Or an electron? A silly question!… or is it? Most likely your reactions went along the same sort of lines as most peoples' would... a bat? "...hmm, an interesting thought"; a mosquito? "a strange thing to ask"; a virus? "a damn silly question !"; an electron? (unprintable comment)". But why not a live electron? Our common considerations of the nature of elements of our surroundings are as much based on egotism as anything else. Historically, western thought has even only recently attributed value to other human races, let alone bats, mosquitoes, viruses, or (heaven preserve us!) electrons. In the midst of anti- anthropomorphic "progress", it is anti-anthropomorphism itself which is possibly the greatest hindrance! Granted, we observe a clear separation in general between the animate and the inanimate (not, of course, forgetting about plants). But the distinction we make is recursive... we know which "things" are alive, because… they are alive! A more satisfactory approach would be to avoid imposing initial differences, and for the clear separation we observe to emerge naturally. In an interview with René Weber, David Bohm stated: "... I would say that the degree of consciousness of the atomic world is very low, at least of self-consciousness." (Weber:) "But it's not dead or inert. That is what