Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucsd!ucsbcsl!silber@sbphy.ucsb.edu
From: silber@sbphy.ucsb.edu
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: embedded understanding beyond the great-wall
Message-ID: <1310@hub.ucsb.edu>
Date: 7 Mar 89 21:42:13 GMT
Sender: news@hub.ucsb.edu
Organization: UC, Santa Barbara. Physics Computer Services
Lines: 9

(an aside:)
The chinese room is inside the palace, the palace is
inside the forbidden city, somewhere at the farthest reaches
of the realm lies the great wall.  The thinking/understanding
"agents" in all these discussions are usually treated as localized
systems of some kind which instantiate various functions through
various means; the wave-mechanical/statistical view that upset
physics a while back is lurking here too.  any single                      
"understanding" is embedded in the totality.