Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!crdgw1!greenba From: greenba@gambia.crd.ge.com (ben a green) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Modelling reinforcement Message-ID: Date: 10 Dec 90 13:19:26 GMT References: <25667@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <16562@cgl.ucsf.EDU> Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com Organization: GE Corporate Research & Development Lines: 28 In-reply-to: valis@athena.mit.edu's message of 8 Dec 90 22:05:48 GMT In article valis@athena.mit.edu (John O'Neil) writes: In article <16562@cgl.ucsf.EDU> brianc@labmed.ucsf.edu (Brian Colfer) writes: >I think that a systematic development of Skinner's ideas concerning >verbal behavior will result in an effective general model for semantic >processing. Please then explain the verbal behavior contained in "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. Make reference, if you wish, to Napoleon as the stimulus for a book written several decades later. Can't do it, of course, but that's not the zinger you may think it is. After all, physics is a mature science. Yet with it, we cannot predict next week's weather with any accuracy. Even if psychology were as advanced as physics, we would need a complete record of Tolstoy's life and the details of his environment. Let's wrangle over more reasonable problems, especially problems for which there are competing solutions. In other words, does anybody have anything better than Skinner's ideas -- anything with comparable scope? -- Ben A. Green, Jr. greenba@crd.ge.com Speaking only for myself, of course.