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Article 5860 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zlsiida@fs1.mcc.ac.uk (dave budd)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Grounding: Real vs. Virtual (formerly "on meaning")
Keywords: symbol, analog, Turing Test, robotics
Message-ID: <zlsiida.334@fs1.mcc.ac.uk>
Date: 22 May 92 11:46:25 GMT
References: <1992May20.150243.25894@psych.toronto.edu> <1992May20.191738.18644@mp.cs.niu.edu> <1992May20.221931.20652@news.media.mit.edu> <1992May21.145410.1055@psych.toronto.edu>
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In article <1992May21.145410.1055@psych.toronto.edu> christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green) writes:

>>>>That is, it would never see a cat, but only the image of a cat. Thus, its

>Ne right on pas! Nothing is to be gained by this regress inward. Are you
>really prepared to argue that we do not see the world, but only our own
>retinal images of the world? And who what sees those?
>It's not a question of personal identity. It's a question of coherent
>explanation.

I'm prepared not only to argue that we never see the world, but further, 
that we never see retinal images either.  Seeing is a property of a process 
deeper in the brain than the retina, though the retina and optic nerve do 
some pre-processing.  The retinal image contains much more information than 
you actually see, and what you see is built internally from data supplied by 
various brain processes to the 'seeing process'.  And the 'I' is just 
another process (which some mystics claim can be switched off without loss 
of consciousness).

+----Great Quotes of our Time----------------------------------------+
| The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any phenomenon  |
| is infinite. 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance', R.Pirsig |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+                                                                     
|  Dave Budd, MCC, Oxford Rd, Manchester, England  (44)061-275-6033  |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+


