Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!mit-amt!turk@media-lab.media.mit.edu
From: turk@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Matthew Turk)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Why the Chinese Room doesn't convince
Message-ID: <1954@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 22 Mar 90 20:23:47 GMT
References: <2080@skye.ed.ac.uk> <352@ntpdvp1.UUCP> <12508@venera.UUCP>
Sender: turk@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: turk@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Organization: MIT Media Lab
Lines: 26
In-reply-to: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu's message of 21 Mar 90 15:30:56 GMT

In article <12508@venera.UUCP> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) writes:

>  In article <352@ntpdvp1.UUCP> sandyz@ntpdvp1.UUCP (Sandy Zinn) writes:
>  >  As the Witt said, "It's a question of who's the Master,
>  >the Man or the Words" (not an exact quote perhaps but I distinctly recall 
>  >the (chauvinistic) noun choices).
>  >
>  Sandy, I would appreciate it if you (or another reader) could pin this down.
>  In Section 7.9 of THE SOCIETY OF MIND, Marvin Minsky wrote, "Words should be
>  our servants, not our masters" (no chauvinism there).  I'm sure Minsky is
>  familiar with Wittgenstein, but I'd like to establish the association for
>  my own interest.
>

   "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone,
"it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less."
   "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many
different things."
   "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master--that's
all."


	Matthew Turk
	MIT Media Lab			turk@media-lab.media.mit.edu
	20 Ames St., E15-391		uunet!mit-amt!turk
	Cambridge, MA  02139		(617)253-0381