[ExI] Sensory Reality (was: The symbol grounding problem in strong AI)

[Ben Zaiboc]

Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:

> On Dec 18, 2009, at 3:09 AM, Ben Zaiboc wrote:

> > We do not know what 'reality' is.  There is
> nothing in our brains that can directly comprehend reality
> (if that even means anything).  What we do is collect
> sensory data via our eyes, ears, etc., and sift it, sort it,
> combine it, distort it with preconceptions and past
> memories, and create 'sensory maps' which are then used to
> feed the more abstract parts of our minds, to create 'the
> World according to You'.  
> 
> Your argument is wanting.  What is our sensory
> experience of if not reality?  In what do our senses
> and mind exist if not in reality?  What would "direct
> comprehension" be, some mystical meandering down fantasy
> lane?  Please explain how any material (i.e., existing
> or possibly existing) being could apprehend reality *except*
> through some type of senses and brain creating a map of what
> is "out there" from sense data.   To condemn
> the only possible form of knowing  reality that there
> can possibly be as actually not knowing reality at all is a
> bizarre argument.

(I've changed the subject line, as I don't want it to get confused with that other, fruitless, argument)

You're quite right.  I probably put it poorly. What I'm saying is just that we create our own reality within our heads, from the sensory feeds we get.  I'm not advocating solipsism.  Those sensory feeds obvously come from the real world, but as you say, we have no way of directly apprehending it, we have to build a representation that is consistent with our sensory inputs.  

This explains why different people seem to 'live in different worlds' (their internal representations are different in some way. To Degas, a river would be a completely different thing to the same river experienced by Tiger Woods, for example), and also why there is no 'symbol grounding problem', because the 'things' that our mental symbols represent are other mental 'things', built from scraps of sensory information that our eyes, ears etc., glean from the environment.

It would be interesting to create an exhibition of the actual data that we are capable of directly getting from the environment (with unenhanced sense organs, I mean).  I think most people would be surprised by it, not to mention confused.

Ben Zaiboc