From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!zirdum Tue Mar 24 09:55:11 EST 1992
Article 4415 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zirdum@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Antun Zirdum)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: The Systems Reply I
Message-ID: <1992Mar12.001918.2564@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Date: 12 Mar 92 00:19:18 GMT
References: <1992Mar9.171606.6886@psych.toronto.edu> <6374@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992Mar11.201637.21875@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Lines: 44

In article <1992Mar11.201637.21875@psych.toronto.edu> christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green) writes:
>In article <6374@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>
>>BTW, I still haven't seen a satisfactory answer to the point that
>>the Room manipulates meaningless symbols (ie, treats them syntactically)
>>without any way to attach meaning to them.  But maybe I've just
>>missed it in all the noise.
>>
>Ah, once again I leap into the breach! Jeff, you're absolutely right. IF
>you're phraseology convinces the hordes that have been unconvinced by me,
>then terrific. It is very straightforward. The symbols (by definition!)
>have no meanings. That's what makes the Chinese room qualify as a Turing
>Machine. It doesn't matter how many symbols you have. It doesn't matter how 

In relation to the above, what would the ANTI AI crowd require
so that a symbol has a reference (semantics). If you do not
know what it means to have semantics, then how is it possible
for you to argue that something does not have it?

If entity X acts as if it has semantics, does it? Or does it require
something else? (WHAT)
In what way do people attach meaning to symbols, for instance, how
do you learn what a word means.
Take the word 'BLUE' (color) what does it mean to say that you know
what 'blue' means? Does this mean that you have something in your
brain that is blue, if not then how is the symbol in your brain
connected to the color blue? (by symbol I do not mean necessarily
one thing, but something(s) that if erased from your brain you would
not understand what the word 'blue' means!)

In other words, please explain to me in concrete terms what it is
that a machine is missing (but that people have) that enables them
to have knowledge of meaning!
(Do not say that humans have understanding, that is merely to beg
the question, 'a computer doesn't have understanding because
it doesn't understand')

p.s. replies please, I will then explain the above in AI-terms if
desired.
-- 
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*   AZ    -- zirdum@ccu.umanitoba.ca                            *
*     " The first hundred years are the hardest! " - W. Mizner  *
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