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Article 1867 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: zeleny@brauer.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Zeleny (was Re: Searle
Message-ID: <1991Dec4.183428.6144@husc3.harvard.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 91 23:34:27 GMT
References: <1991Dec2.195705.12427@milton.u.washington.edu> <1991Dec3.122946.6107@husc3.harvard.edu> <12551@pitt.UUCP>
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In article <12551@pitt.UUCP> 
geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks) writes:

>In article <1991Dec3.122946.6107@husc3.harvard.edu> 
>zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu (Mikhail Zeleny) writes:

MZ:
>>It is completely clear to me that in writing these words I communicate with
>>other people.  I assume that at least some members of my audience will
>>treat my words as meaningful, and interpret them in a way that would
>>result in certain mental states.  Since mental states are private, and
>>hence mutually incomparable, I assume that to the extent that I succeed in
>>conveying any meaning to these people, the nature of this meaning must be
>>mind-independent. 

GEB:
>Well, yes, and no.  Your success in communicating to someone else 
>depends to a large extent on the similarity of both the neural
>hardware (brains) and programming (experience) between you and them.
>You might have a lot more trouble communicating the above thought
>to an idiot (no cracks, INFIDEL), than to a philosopher.  You might
>also have more trouble conveying it to even a very bright Australian
>aborigine (raised in the bush).  It also depends on your skill at
>using language.  But I don't see what all this has to do with
>whether the conveyor or conveyee is human or machine.

I can't be responsible for your ability to recall my earlier arguments to
the effect that a finite state automaton cannot internalize such meanings
to the extent that the symbols produced by it could be said to denote;
however, if you wish, I can send you, or anyone else interested in it, a
summary thereof.

`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'
: Qu'est-ce qui est bien?  Qu'est-ce qui est laid?         Harvard   :
: Qu'est-ce qui est grand, fort, faible...                 doesn't   :
: Connais pas! Connais pas!                                 think    :
:                                                             so     :
: Mikhail Zeleny                                                     :
: 872 Massachusetts Ave., Apt. 707                                   :
: Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139           (617) 661-8151            :
: email zeleny@zariski.harvard.edu or zeleny@HUMA1.BITNET            :
:                                                                    :
'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`'`


