Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!gilbert
From: gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Question on Chinese Room Argument
Message-ID: <2497@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Date: 1 Mar 89 10:40:30 GMT
References: <4298@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <Feb.18.17.26.17.1989.23438@elbereth.rutgers.edu> <4296@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <Feb.20.20.43.21.1989.15687@elbereth.rutgers.edu> <1989Feb20.213329.10376@cs.rochester.edu> <855@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> <17923@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <9739@ihlpb.ATT.
Reply-To: gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton)
Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland
Lines: 31

In article <9739@ihlpb.ATT.COM> arm@ihlpb.UUCP (55528-Macalalad,A.R.) writes:
>here and there."  I think that most good AI research is done under this
>category, where the emphasis is on understanding how the mind works,
>biologically, psychologically, and computationally.

Ahem.  You've missed out the social aspect of mind.  

A while back, Don Norman re-iterated the fact that all interesting performance judgements
are social judgements.  Unfortunately, some Waldenite from USCD later came back with
the nonsense that intelligent arises from ONE individual interacting with the
physical environment.  Remind me not to go to any of his parties :-) :-)

The facts, for the most die-hard positivist, are that without proper early
socialisation, children end up worse than animals (how many times do I have to say
this?)

Whilst the Walden dream of one man, his biology, psychology and (presumed)
computations may appeal to many Americans, remember that this ideal is nothing more
than a fiction, though a profoundly appealing one to many in the new world.

Yes, we do work out problems on our own, but only as a result of interactions with
others.  One cannot work from the individual to society, from one intelligent agent
to a co-operating community with a living, viable culture.  Society is not the
individual writ large (all though some political ideologies do hold this).

(As for the Mad Ox of Cyperpunk - have the decency not to take any of the content
 here as xenphobia.  I have a number of American friends and have a balanced view of
 your marvellous country, but American individualism isn't a science).
-- 
Gilbert Cockton, Department of Computing Science,  The University, Glasgow
	gilbert@uk.ac.glasgow.cs <europe>!ukc!glasgow!gilbert