[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI.

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Tue, 12/29/09, John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:

>> computer simulations of things do not equal the things they
>> simulate. 

> Sometimes simulations are exactly equal to the
> things they simulate and the more abstract something is
> the more likely that is to happen. Computer arithmetic is
> real arithmetic, digital music is real music.

To borrow a phrase popularized by a philosopher by the name of Thomas Nagel, who famously wrote an essay titled _What is it like to be a bat?_, there exists something "it is like" to mentally solve or understand a mathematical equation. Computers do math well, but you can't show me how they could possibly know what it's like. 

Digital music? Same story.

-gts