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: Simulation and Understanding (was Re: Simulation verus real Message-ID: <17470@cup.portal.com> Date: 22 Apr 89 06:53:13 GMT References: <827@htsa.uucp> <5790@watdcsu.waterloo.edu> <5106@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <1259@rpi.edu> <5254@cs.Buffalo.EDU> <17191@cup.portal.com> <975@itivax.iti.org> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 18 In article <975@itivax.iti.org> dhw@itivax.iti.org (David H. West) writes: >>Build a simulated NN which is equivalent to that of an infant - a blank >>slate. Then it will learn by experience as humans and other animals do. > >Infants seem to come somewhat prewired; one could think of them as having >bootstrap code in ROM. Yes, I was aware of this. However, I didn't think it was relevant to the discussion at hand, since none of the behaviors involved are what we would call sentient. Some genetically-programmed instinctive behaviors will probably be necessary for ANNs to achieve sentience; these could perhaps be provided by evolving the ANN individuals in competition with others. Dan Hankins