[Oztrich Boy]

I'll stipulate your hypothetical, and claim that given a computer, Francis Bacon could have figured out in large part how it works, by suitable empirical tests. - Right Wing Professor

Francis Bacon couldn't have done squat. For example, he had no electricity - r9etb

I understood you were using a synechoche of "given the use of a computer"

(Why are Biblical Literalists so darn literal?)

[r9etb]

I understood you were using a synechoche of "given the use of a computer"

Well, yes. But to place Francis Bacon into a computer-ready society would be to invalidate the fundamental requirements of the thought experiment.

RWP had previously referred to "contemporary rational processes," the scope of which includes all conditions necessary for a computer to operate. That includes things like electricity, without which none of the rest of a computer could possibly have made sense to him.