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Article 6144 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: stephen@estragon.uchicago.edu (Stephen P Spackman)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Transducers: The Retina is Part of the Brain
Message-ID: <STEPHEN.92Jun7221639@estragon.uchicago.edu>
Date: 8 Jun 92 03:16:32 GMT
References: <1992Jun6.153132.25456@Princeton.EDU>
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In-Reply-To: harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU's message of Sat, 6 Jun 1992 15:31:32 GMT

In article <1992Jun6.153132.25456@Princeton.EDU> harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad) writes:
|(2) I systematically ignore all the postings about the possibility that
|you or I may be figments of some virtual imagination, etc. etc. The
|mind/body problem, the other-minds problem, and all the interesting
|possibilities that are open to skeptical reflection, including
|solipsism, are eminently worth thinking about. But it is my opinion
|that the imaginations of today's motherboard-bred generation,
|over-accustomed to the fantasy world of video games, cyberspace, and
|other virtual wonders, are actually much LESS capable of understanding
|the profound problems raised by these forms of skepticism about
|reality, even as they convince themselves that they actually understand
|it all better! You have to understand the appearance/reality first, before
|you can hope to offer any words of wisdom on it.

Conversely, If you don't appreciate that what you've established is a
notion of grounding _relative to_ a world (be that world a "virtual
reality" or a "possible world" in any of the myriad senses of the
phrase), then I don't think you understand your own notion very well.

It's a great convenience to live (at last!) in a time when "reality"
and "consciousness" and "self" are finally well within the reach (if
not yet within the grasp) of our analytic tools. Wish you were
here....
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stephen p spackman         Center for Information and Language Studies
stephen@estragon.uchicago.edu                    University of Chicago
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       Believe in Strong AI? I don't even believe in Strong I!


