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From: adam@gec-mi-at.co.uk (Adam Quantrill)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: The symbol grounding problem
Message-ID: <605@gec-mi-at.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 23-Jun-87 06:24:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: gec-mi-a.605
Posted: Tue Jun 23 06:24:52 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jul-87 17:32:22 EDT
References: <764@mind.UUCP> <768@mind.UUCP> <770@mind.UUCP>
Sender: news@gec-mi-at.co.uk
Reply-To: adam@gec-mi-at.co.uk (Adam Quantrill)
Organization: Marconi Instruments Ltd., St. Albans, UK
Lines: 27
Keywords: symbols, grounding, red, herring
Summary: Symbol Grounding is a red herring.
Xref: mnetor comp.ai:615 comp.cog-eng:183

In article <6521@diamond.BBN.COM> aweinste@Diamond.BBN.COM (Anders Weinstein) writes:
>
>To elaborate: I presume the "symbol-grounding" problem is a *philosophical*
>question: what gives formal symbols original intentionality? I suppose the
>only answer anybody knows is, in brief, that the symbols must be playing a
>certain role in what Dennett calls an "intentional system", that is, a system
>which is capable of producing complex, adaptive behavior in a rational way.
>[]
>And this, as far as I can tell, is the end of what we learn from the "symbol
>grounding" problem -- you've got to have sense organs. []

It seems to me that the Symbol Grounding problem is  a   red   herring.   If   I
took  a  partially self-learning program and data (P & D) that had learnt from a
computer with 'sense organs',  and  ran it  on a  computer  without,  would  the
program's output become symbolically ungrounded?

Similarily, if I myself wrote P & D without running it on a  computer   at  all,
where's  the difference? Surely it is possible that I can come up with identical
P & D by analysis.  Does  that  make the  original  P  & D running on  the  com-
puter with 'sense organs' symbolically ungrounded?

A computer can  always  interact  via  the  keyboard  &  terminal  screen,   (if
those   are  the only 'sense organs'), grounding its internal symbols via people
who react to the output, and  provide further stimulus.
       -Adam.

/* If at first it don't compile, kludge, kludge again.*/