Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!att!cbnewsh!mbb From: mbb@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (martin.b.brilliant) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Cog Sci Fi (was: STRONG AND WEAK AI) Message-ID: <6519@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> Date: 11 Dec 89 19:40:21 GMT References: <8093@cs.yale.edu> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 42 From article <8093@cs.yale.edu>, by blenko-tom@CS.YALE.EDU (Tom Blenko): > In article harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Stevan Harnad) writes: > |.... As long as you allow yourself to interpret > |ungrounded symbols you'll keep coming up with "virtual reality." > |The only trouble is, what we're after is real reality .... The reference to real reality raised a ghost, and part of Tom Blenko's reply illuminated it: > ..... even if all > information from the environment were in principal available to a > putative intelligent entity (it makes no difference whether it is > artificial or not), there are necessarily limitations on what > information the entity could extract...... > ...... All sorts of entities (corporations, the > roach species, you and I, etc.) make imperfect use of incomplete > information in order to survive and reproduce...... In sophomore philosophy, I heard of a problem that Rene Decartes had. He had sensory information seemingly coming into his mind, but he wasn't sure it was really sensory in origin. He was sure only that he existed himself: "Cogito, ergo sum," I think, therefore I am. In other words, he knew of the existence of the symbols, but he didn't know whether or not they were grounded. He finally copped out, through some argument based on the concept of God, and convinced himself that God had to exist, and hence, somehow, that everything else did too. But is there any difference between Descartes's symbol grounding problem (which we all have to solve for ourselves, as individuals), and the problem of symbol grounding in an automaton? I think there is no logical way out, just as there was none for Descartes. And for practical purposes we don't need one, because we have got on for billions of years without one. M. B. Brilliant Marty AT&T-BL HO 3D-520 (201) 949-1858 Holmdel, NJ 07733 att!hounx!marty1 or marty1@hounx.ATT.COM Disclaimer: Opinions stated herein are mine unless and until my employer explicitly claims them; then I lose all rights to them. Notice: Communication will cease 12/30/89 due to retirement.