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From: arndt@smurf.DEC
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: "I see", said the carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw.
Message-ID: <621@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-May-84 15:08:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.621
Posted: Fri May 25 15:08:52 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 28-May-84 05:37:51 EDT
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 27

But perception, don't you see, is in the I of the beholder!

Remember the problem of Alice, "Which dreamed it?"

"Now, Kitty, let's consider who it was that dreamed it all.  This is a
serious question, my dear, and you should not go on licking your paw like
that -  as if Dina hadn't washed you this morning!  You see, Kitty, it MUST
have been either me or the Red King.  He was part of my dream, of course -
but then I was part of his dream, too!  Was it the Red King, Kitty?  You
were his wife, my dear, so you ought to know - oh, Kitty, DO help to settle
it!  I'm sure your paw can wait."


The point being, if WE can't decide logically what constitudes a "REAL"
perception for ourselves (and I contend that there is no LOGICAL way out
of the subjectivist trap) how in the WORLD can we decide on a LOGICAL basis
if another human, not to mention a computer, has perception?  We can't!!

Therefore we operate on a faith basis a la Turing and move forward on a 
practical level and don't ask silly questions like, "Can Computers Think?".

Comments?

Regards,

Ken Arndt