[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI

John Clark jonkc at bellsouth.net
Mon Dec 14 15:36:04 UTC 2009


On Dec 14, 2009, at 8:11 AM, Gordon Swobe wrote:

> I think everyone will agree that a piece of paper has no conscious understanding of the symbols it holds,

All I know is that the pieces of paper that I've seen don't act intelligently, or at least not very intelligently. They behave rather like a human being does when they are asleep or dead. As for their consciousness I can only speculate. 

>  that a piece of paper cannot overcome the symbol grounding problem.

Old fashioned punch cards were made of paper and they overcame the symbol grounding "problem" in 1890, back then they called them Hollerith cards. Mr. Hollerith went on to start a little company which became IBM.

 John K Clark



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