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From: markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Chinese Room Experiment: empirical tests
Summary: Bootstrapping a new language.
Message-ID: <7936@uwm.edu>
Date: 29 Nov 90 03:09:42 GMT
References: <7852@uwm.edu> <1990Nov28.003642.22319@fivegl.co.nz>
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
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In article <1990Nov28.003642.22319@fivegl.co.nz> hugh@fivegl.co.nz (Hugh Grierson) writes:
>>Trust me, it's a very weird feeling, I've tried something very similar to
>>this experiment a countless number of times.
>
>...but now you have me interested.  
>
>Don't leave us hanging here - what actually were the experiments you tried,
>and what were the results?

One of the more interesting cases that comes to mind is VAX binary: i.e.
reading executable files without any translation references.  I didn't spend
more than a couple days on that but got as far as being able to recognize what
happen to correspond to addressing modes and instruction opcodes.

If it isn't too late for you (meaning if you already have experience with
and knowledge of assembly languages), try it.  The analogy of this experience
will give you an appreciation of what a machine has to go through in 'learning'
human language.

>What other history is there of such absorbtion techniques: for oral/written
>language, or for non-linguistic learning?

As a matter of course, (last I heard), Hungarians teach their foreign-language
students from texts written completely in Hungarian.  It's very effective.

This is slightly different though, in that you have a translation reference
(initially: pictures, later: subsets of Hungarian itself).