Footnotes

 (1)

For that matter, how does it even know I am here to hear them? I tap at its keys, but why not interpret that as friendly patting, or some kind of environmental white noise? It took Helen Keller quite some time to realize that Anne Sullivan was trying to communicate with her by patting her hand. How long will it take a machine?

 (2)

See, for example, [Lewontin, 2000], or [Venter et al., 2001], p.1346.

 (3)

Of course this isn't international. Ideographic languages, for example, need many more than 8 bits of information to specify a single character.

 (4)

In case you're wondering, they are: the physical layer (kind of cable connecting neighboring machines), the data link layer (the kind of communication between one machine and its neighbor), the network layer (how the computer network is laid out), the transport layer (how does data get from one computer to another), the session layer (how does a program on one computer cooperate with a program running on another), the presentation layer (what kind of data is being received), and the application layer (how should that data be displayed to the user). You can find more information in [IEC, 1994]. As with the other domains under discussion here, the standard outlined by this scheme is often honored in the breach.

 (5)

[Shannon, 1948], p.5ff. It doesn't matter that much for this critique, either. Given all the different sounds it can indicate, what does a "P" stand for?

 (6)

David Foster Wallace has a good account of some ongoing controversies of this sort. ([Wallace, 2001]) He writes "You can think of Webster's Third as sort of the Fort Sumter of the contemporary Usage Wars."

 (7)

See for example, [Kittay, 1987] on metaphor.

 (8)

Incidentally, it is important to note here that Shannon may not even bear the lion's share of the responsibility for what was made of his ideas. Others, such as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Walter Pitts, and their intellectual heirs, bear as much, or more. But though others elaborated the concepts beyond all reason, much of the program was spelled out in the original paper. For the sake of this essay then, consider "Shannon" to be a species of synecdoche.

 (9)

[Jackendoff, 2002], in a break from syntax-heavy interpretations of generative grammar, contains interesting speculations about how language could have evolved from a system of grunts and calls.

 (10)

See [Kripke, 1980] and [Putnam, 1988] for the original elaborations of this theory.

 (11)

A formal system can accommodate an infinite number of axioms only if they are generated from a finite number of axiom schema. So, for example, you can have an infinite number of axioms of the form "six is a positive integer" and "seven is a positive integer," and so on. Turing stated the requirement in terms that are more familiar now: a formal system is one where axioms can be -- at least theoretically -- combined by a computer to create proofs.

 (12)

See, for example [Black, 1998].

 (13)

This is not to mention my capacity to enjoy the apple. [Damasio, 1999] argues persuasively that in some ways, emotions may be even more fundamental to consciousness than our senses. See [Leiber, 1996] for more evidence to support the view that senses may be secondary.