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From: rhh@research.att.com (Ron Hardin <9289-11216> 0112110)
Subject: Re: Dennett on pain (was Does AI make philosophy obsolete?)
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Date: Wed, 6 Sep 1995 13:43:51 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:33148 sci.cognitive:9417 sci.psychology.theory:545

John McCarthy writes:
>My opinion is that the concept of pain will survive a good theory of
>mind.  It will be an approximate concept and will be used by
>sophisticated people and robots and ordinary people in what I call the
>common sense informatic situation.  Physicists use "The rock fell on
>the ground" in most common sense informatic situations in the same way
>as a non-physicist, even though in other common sense informatic
>situations they may find it relevant to count seconds to estimate the
>height from which the rock fell or to use the concept of terminal
>velocity to estimate how much damage a rock falling from an airplane
>would do.

Such was the rock that Moses touched in the desert with his rod, and
the rock's open flank shuddered all at once and sent an arc of water
gushing to the people's lips in a cool cascade.  If only some queen of
hearts would come to me in my aridness, some divinity, a sorceress, a
female Moses, dragging the peoples through the desert after her; if she
would only strike the rock in my hardened heart, you would see leaping
up, as from that other rock, silver jets of sparkling water; there the
roots of plants would come to slake their thirst; there wandering shepherds
would lead their flocks, to lie down in the shade and take their rest;
there, as in a fishpond, the faithful storks would plunge their long
beaks and wash their wings.

(Gautier)
