Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!haven!udel!princeton!phoenix!harnad
From: harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: STRONG AND WEAK AI
Summary: On confusing the medium and the message
Message-ID: <11870@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 2 Dec 89 06:48:34 GMT
References: <1698@aipna.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 37

Chris Malcolm asked for a definition:

Those who believe in Strong AI believe that thinking is computation
(i.e., symbol manipulation). Those who believe in Weak AI believe that
computation is a means of studying and testing theories of (among other
things) thinking, which need not be just computation (i.e., not just
symbol manipulation).

The typical error of believers in Strong AI is a misconstrual of
the Church-Turing Thesis: Whereas it may be true that every physical
process is "equivalent" to symbol manipulation, i.e., is simulable by
symbol manipulation, it is decidedly NOT true that every physical
process IS symbol manipulation. Flying, heating and transduction, for
example, are not. How does one fall into this error? By becoming lost
in the hermeneutic hall of mirrors created by the semantic
interpretations we cast onto symbol systems. We forget the difference
between what is merely INTERPRETABLE as X and what really IS X. We
confuse the medium with the message.

The chimpanzee language experiments (and, to a lesser degree, "Clever
Hans") fell into similar errors. Freudian interpretations of the
machinations of the unconscious and astrological interpretations of
what the heavans portend are more distant relatives...

References:

 Harnad, S. (1989) Minds, Machines and Searle. Journal of Experimental
    and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence 1: 5 - 25.

(2) Harnad, S. (1990) The Symbol Grounding Problem. Physica D, in press.

(3) Harnad, S. (1990) Computational Hermeneutics. Social Epistemology,
    in press.
-- 
Stevan Harnad  Department of Psychology  Princeton University
harnad@confidence.princeton.edu       srh@flash.bellcore.com
harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu    harnad@pucc.bitnet    (609)-921-7771


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