Path: utzoo!dciem!client2!mmt From: mmt@client2.DRETOR.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Modelling reinforcement Message-ID: <3856@client2.DRETOR.UUCP> Date: 18 Dec 90 23:59:10 GMT References: <25667@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <16562@cgl.ucsf.EDU> Organization: Defence and Civil Intitute of Environmental Medicine Lines: 30 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. - To understand the sense of this exchange, let us consider a possible parallel exchange: Person A " I think a systematic development of Gell-Mann's ideas concerning the interactions among quarks and photons and gluons will result in an effective general model for physical and chemical structures." Person B " Please explain then the colour patterns in the tail of a peacock" Not that I necessarily accept Skinner's ideas, but the manipulation of simple concepts related in simple ways can lead to some wildly unexpected results. How about 1 and 0, "and" "or" and "not". -- Martin Taylor (mmt@ben.dciem.dnd.ca ...!uunet!dciem!mmt) (416) 635-2048 There is no legal canon prohibiting the application of common sense (Judge James Fontana, July 1990, on staying the prosecution of a case)