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Article 1850 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle (was .....)
Message-ID: <12552@pitt.UUCP>
Date: 4 Dec 91 14:08:12 GMT
References: <EdBeY9i00WBME1JoNV@andrew.cmu.edu> <292@tdatirv.UUCP>
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Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
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In article <292@tdatirv.UUCP> sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
>
>You seem to believe that the mental symbols in your mind are somehow primary.
>This is understandable since, unless you are utterly unique, your conscious
>memories only date back to the age at which you started to form them. Your
>life prior to the formation of mental models of the world is inaccessible
>to your memory.  (At least that is true every human I have ever heard about,
>but maybe you are different and can remember thing prior to age 1.5 years).
>

I think the hypothesis (if that is what you intended) that mental
models of the world are necessary for memories is faulty.  Animals
certainly have memories, but I doubt if they have mental models
of the world (at least not lower animals).  A memory of being dropped
or injured, for example, would not require any mental model of the
world, but just recall of sensory data.  I think one reason why
we don't remember our infancy is that human beings are born with
unmyelinated brains.  It is not until our brains are sufficiently
developed that we have the ability of long-term recall.  Infants do
have some memory capability, obviously, as anyone who has been around
them knows.


-- 
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP        | "When in danger, or in doubt
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu     |  Run in circles, scream and shout" --Heinlein
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