From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!psinntp!scylla!daryl Tue Mar 24 09:55:43 EST 1992
Article 4455 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: daryl@oracorp.com (Daryl McCullough)
Subject: Re: Definition of Understanding
Message-ID: <1992Mar14.131328.10839@oracorp.com>
Organization: ORA Corporation
Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1992 13:13:28 GMT
Lines: 28

fb0m+@andrew.cmu.edu (Franklin Boyle) writes: (in response to Andrzej Pindor)

>>Why are you sure that a computer could not have the same *sensation* when
>>accessing a picture of hamburger in memory and when actually seeing one?
>>I am really puzzled!

>What does it mean for a computer to "actually see one"?  If the image from
>a camera is encoded as arbitrary bit strings (arbitrary because as long as
>there are matchers that physically fit it, it can be a bitmap, prop., etc.),
>then what is the computer "seeing"?

I believe that the common way of describing seeing in terms of
"receiving a mental image" is misleading, if not plain wrong. What
good what it do you if your brain created an image of what you were
seeing inside your head? You would need to have something like "mental
eyes" to scan *that* image to know what you were looking at.

The end product of seeing is *not* an image--seeing *starts* with an
image--it is information.

Daryl McCullough
ORA Corp.
Ithaca, NY







