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Article 5762 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Subject: Re: Grounding: Real vs. Virtual (formerly "on meaning")
Message-ID: <1992May20.030811.13711@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Keywords: symbol, analog, Turing Test, robotics
Organization: Northern Illinois University
References: <1992May19.003821.9450@Princeton.EDU> <1992May19.221021.1619@psych.toronto.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 May 1992 03:08:11 GMT
Lines: 29

In article <1992May19.221021.1619@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:
>In article <1992May19.003821.9450@Princeton.EDU> harnad@shine.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad) writes:

>>But take a step back and make the "world of objects" merely a symbolic
>>simulation of the world instead of the real world and your grounding is
>>immediately lost, and you are back to the symbols-only TT and mediated
>>meaning (and hence PLENTY of reason to doubt there's anybody home in
>>there).
>
>This is the step that I would like to see clarified, since it seems to
>me that it demands that humans raised in virtual realities would
>have no semantics.

  How can a human be raised in a completely virtual reality?  What is
a virtual hunger pang?  What is a virtual runny nose?  How much
excitement will there be in a virtual adrenaline rush?  How can a
human learn to speak if he can neither hear his own voice nor feel the
movement of his facial muscles?

  I could go on, but I think you get the point.  There is a large amount
of physical reality which is determined by the genes.  Can a brain live in
a test tube, isolated from its physical reality, and still learn and
develop normally?

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


