[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Thu, 12/31/09, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

>> And simulated minds can't observe themselves any more
> than can the simulated goldfish that appear to swim on some
> screen-savers.
> 
> If a mind is like any other thing at all it is like an
> abstract mathematical entity, not like a physical object. 

So said Renee Descartes and other mystics who believed in your supposed duality of mind/matter. Unfortunately the strong AI research program came out of that same false paradigm: the mind as abstract software, the brain as physical hardware. 

> The brain or computer is the physical object instantiating the mind, 
> like a sphere made of stone is a physical instantiation of an abstract 
> sphere. You can destroy a physical sphere but you can't destroy the
> abstract sphere

It seems then that you suppose yourself as possessing or equaling this "abstract sphere of mind" that your brain instantiated, and that you suppose further that this abstract sphere of yours will continue to exist after your body dies. Correct me if I'm wrong.

-gts