[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Thu, 12/31/09, John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> And if simulated objects couldn't effect each other why in the world 
> would scientists spend so much time making such computer programs?

Simulated objects affect each other in the sense that mathematical abstractions affect each other, and we can make pragmatic use of those abstractions in computer modeling. But those objects cannot as you claimed in a previous message "burn" each other, nor can they as Stathis claimed have the property of "wetness". Simulated fire doesn't burn things and simulated waterfalls are not "wet".

> You ask us to ignore a century and a half of hard evidence on 
> how Evolution works simply on your authority, and then you
> accuse us of being slaves to religious doctrine. 

It looks like religion to me when people here confuse computer simulations of things with real things, especially when those simulations happen to represent intentional entities, e.g., real people.


-gts