From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!michael Mon Mar  9 18:35:27 EST 1992
Article 4286 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!psych.toronto.edu!michael
>From: michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar)
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
References: <1992Mar3.220206.6241@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1992Mar4.172020.19505@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Mar4.190304.16485@beaver.cs.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <1992Mar5.202705.2733@psych.toronto.edu>
Date: Thu, 5 Mar 1992 20:27:05 GMT

In article <1992Mar4.190304.16485@beaver.cs.washington.edu> pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:
>In article <1992Mar4.172020.19505@psych.toronto.edu> christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green) writes:

>       the person could come to abduce some sort of hypotheses about
>>the meaning of the symbols, this avenue is not open to the AI side
>>of the debate, because under strong AI, [ ... ]
>
>Chris, as you yourself not below, hardly anyone in the AI field is
>into what Searle called "strong AI" anymore. It is simply incredibly
>deceitful to imply that the entire AI community believes the tenets of
>strong AI, when for a start, most of the connectionist community is
>clearly closer to Searle's weak AI.
>
>You're attacking a strawman, or at least, a minority view.

If no one in computer science bought into Strong AI, then there would
be as much point in having *this* newsgroup as there would be
"comp.weather_modelling.philosophy," as the philosophical implications
of both of these projects would be equivalent, i.e., nil.  The primary
reason that philosophers are interested in AI is because of the strong
functionalist claim made by *many* of its still-current members.
Getting computer programs to do nifty things may be fun, but if AI folks
don't believe that they are generating minds, then AI is no different in
its philosophical ramifications than any other simulation discipline.

If the Strong AI position is a strawman, so be it.  But then why the
heck is everyone so upset about the Chinese Room?

- michael




