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From: mcohen@charming.nrtc.northrop.com (Martin Cohen)
Subject: Re: Computers--Next stage in evolution? Hmmmmmm.....
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References: <3jlpjg$ak4@laplace.ee.latrobe.edu.au> <3jmi3b$ljc@agate.berkeley.edu> <D5t31C.86A@topazio.dcc.ufmg.br>
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 01:48:04 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:28636 comp.ai.philosophy:26393 comp.ai.alife:2898

In article <D5t31C.86A@topazio.dcc.ufmg.br> omni@topazio.dcc.ufmg.br (Lucio de Souza Coelho) writes:
>
>If a child borns and grows without contact with creatures able to use some
>language (humans and a lot of other animals), then do this child become a
>thoughtless adult?
>
>(I don't know HOW could this terrible experiment be made. Using dumb nurse
>robots?)
>
........................

>It is a interesting point of view. Maybe language is the operating system of our
>brains (or its instruction set :-)! IMHO, the child described above become a
>thougtless adult.

Children such as these have been found. They are called feral
(I believe) children. They were abandoned as infants
and grew up without any contact with humans.

As I recall, they, in general, never learned to speak
if they were beyond 13 or so (this age could be wrong)
when found. However, they could learn to dress
and do other "civilized" actions.

So, it seems that they do have thoughts, but do
not have a spoken language.
-- 
Marty Cohen (mcohen@nrtc.northrop.com) - Not the guy in Philly
  This is my opinion and is probably not Northrop Grumman's!
          Use this material of your own free will
