From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!zirdum Thu Apr 16 11:33:48 EDT 1992
Article 5023 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!zirdum
>From: zirdum@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Antun Zirdum)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: SHRDLU's mind
Message-ID: <1992Apr10.032859.25669@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Date: 10 Apr 92 03:28:59 GMT
References: <1992Apr7.211654.7694@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Apr8.073244.29543@ccu.umanitoba.ca> <1992Apr8.155954.10355@psych.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Lines: 54

In article <1992Apr8.155954.10355@psych.toronto.edu> christo@psych.toronto.edu (Christopher Green) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.073244.29543@ccu.umanitoba.ca> zirdum@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Antun Zirdum) writes:
>>
>>
>>Here you are mistaken. There are such things as small minds
>>and big minds. Would you not agree that small animals have
>>small minds, insects have even smaller minds. The problem
> 
>It seems you haven't been paying close attention. The question is not
>whether there are "small" anbd "big" minds. The question is whether
>an answers to that question has any bearing whatsoever on the
>question of whether something can be said to have a mind at all.
>I have argued that it does not. A small mind is just as much a mind
>as a big mind is.
>
There is no need to insult me, I have been paying attention,
and you seemed to be saying that SHRDLU cannot "have" a mind
because (and this is where you lose me. I don't know why you
deny a very small mind to SHRDLU?). My opinion is that if
it acts enough like a mind, then it is a mind - because that
is what a mind is (the ability to solve problems, feel, etc -
note: not inclusivly)

I think that we (all) have been approaching the problem 
from the wrong side, sometimes humans need to back up and
look from the other side. (here goes)
QUESTION: What does it mean to NOT HAVE A MIND? I think
that we will find that everyone is much more in agreement
with this.

OPINION: My personal view is that not having mind means that
the object:
1) cannot solve basic problems about the real world.
2) cannot react with learned behaviour! (yes that means no memory
	-> no mind!)
3) cannot ... Please everyone fill in this list.

Note that there is no mention in the above of Thinking, 
understanding, feeling, etc.. All of these terms are 
inherently contained in what a mind can do (as opposed to
what it cannot.)
>
>-- 
>Christopher D. Green                christo@psych.toronto.edu
>Psychology Department               cgreen@lake.scar.utoronto.ca
>University of Toronto
>---------------------


-- 
*****************************************************************
*   AZ    -- zirdum@ccu.umanitoba.ca                            *
*     " The first hundred years are the hardest! " - W. Mizner  *
*****************************************************************


