From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!csd.unb.ca!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!bonnie.concordia.ca!garrot.DMI.USherb.CA!uxa.ecn.bgu.edu!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert Thu Apr 16 11:33:29 EDT 1992
Article 4991 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!csd.unb.ca!morgan.ucs.mun.ca!nstn.ns.ca!bonnie.concordia.ca!garrot.DMI.USherb.CA!uxa.ecn.bgu.edu!mp.cs.niu.edu!rickert
>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: syntax and semantics
Message-ID: <1992Apr8.220700.12092@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:07:00 GMT
References: <92098.170625JPE1@psuvm.psu.edu> <1992Apr8.010858.5398@news.media.mit.edu> <92099.165657JPE1@psuvm.psu.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 20

In article <92099.165657JPE1@psuvm.psu.edu> JPE1@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.010858.5398@news.media.mit.edu>, minsky@media.mit.edu
>(Marvin Minsky) says:
>...
>>It is _you_ who may interpret what it is doing as formal or precise.
>
>   Does this mean that you reject the isomorphism that many philosophers
>find between computers and formal systems?  And if so, on what grounds?

  I certainly do when it is doing numeric computations involving approximate
arithmetic (as is done, for example, in the floating point unit).  To treat
the computer in such a case as doing formal symbol manipulations is to reduce
its task to something incredibly intricate and resource consuming, but
without any purpose.

-- 
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=
  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


