The phrase that once came into my mind to describe this requirement, is that a mind must be created already in motion. There is no argument so compelling that it will give dynamics to a static thing. There is no computer program so persuasive that you can run it on a rock.

To add to my previous comment, I think there's a more rigorous way to express this point. (The "motion" analogy seems pretty vague.)

A non-universal Turing machine can't simulate a universal Turing machine. (If it could, it would be universal after all -- a contradiction.) In other words, there are computers that can self-program and those that can't, and no amount of programming can change the latter into the former.

Cheers, Ari

The question "Is this object a blegg?" may stand in for different queries on different occasions. If it weren't standing in for some query, you'd have no reason to care.

Basically, this is pragmatism in a nutshell -- right?

Cheers, Ari