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Article 1794 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Zeleny (was Re: Searle
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Date: 2 Dec 91 13:59:17 GMT
References: <5718@skye.ed.ac.uk> <12537@pitt.UUCP> <1991Dec1.113406.6027@husc3.harvard.edu>
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In article <1991Dec1.113406.6027@husc3.harvard.edu> zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:
>
>GB:
>>There have been some connectionist programs (such as Sejnowski's)
>>that have learned to speak words.  These symbols were learned
>>by reinforcing certain stimuli, so I suppose you could say they
>>"refer" to the stimulus in some way.  In a more complex computer,
>>such as the brain, the referents would be multiple and complex.
>
>I would argue that the program's words merely refer to its internal
>representation (under our interpretation, of course) of the stimulus, as,
>regardless of how such a representation occurred, the program's response
>would be the same.

And how would that contrast with our words refering to our internal
representation of the objects and abstractions that we are symbolizing
by them?










-- 
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP        | "When in danger, or in doubt
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu     |  Run in circles, scream and shout" --Heinlein
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