Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!dan-hankins
From: dan-hankins@cup.portal.com (Daniel B Hankins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Question on Chinese Room Argument
Message-ID: <16876@cup.portal.com>
Date: 8 Apr 89 20:13:15 GMT
References: <10992@bcsaic.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 41

In article <10982@bcsaic.UUCP> ray@bcsaic.UUCP (Ray Allis) writes:

>I assert that the "analogness" is absolutely critical.  My case is based
>on the fundamental difference between _representations_ and _symbols_. 
>(i.e.  the voltages, frequencies, chemical concentrations and so on are
>_representations_ of "external reality" rather than symbols.  Symbols
>appear at a much "higher" level of cognition, where _representations_ can
>be associated with each other.

     This is wrong.  There are voltages, frequencies, chemical
concentrations, and so on.  They do not represent _anything_.  A symbol,
according to Webster, is a thing that represents another thing.  If they
did represent something, they would be symbols.

     The 'represents' relation is completely _subjective_.  There is no
objective representation of external reality in the internal physical state
of a human body, unless some observer chooses to interpret the physical
state in that manner.

     The string, "I seem to be having this tremendous difficulty with _my_
lifestyle" would be interpreted by most English speakers as a
representation of a verbal lament.  To a Vl'Hurg, it represents the most
vile insult imaginable.


>A digital computer is the archetypical physical symbol system; it
>manipulates symbols according to specified relationships among them, with
>absolute disregard for whatever they symbolize.

     This is essentially the same error.  If they don't symbolize anything,
then they aren't symbols.  No representation, no symbol.


Dan Hankins

     It showed a man in robes with long, flowing white hair and beard
standing on a mountaintop staring in astonishment at a wall of black rock. 
Above his head a fiery hand traced flaming letters with its index finger on
the rock.  The words it wrote were:

     THINK FOR YOURSELF, SCHMUCK!