[ExI] The digital nature of brains (was: digital simulations)

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Mon, 2/1/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> The system has understanding, but no part of the system
> either separately or taken as an ensemble has understanding.
> I've tried to explain this giving several variations on the
> CRA, none of which you have directly responded to

Because that answer doesn't make any sense to me, Stathis. Looks like you want to skirt the issue by asserting that the system understands things that the man, *considered as the system*, does not understand. You do this by imagining a fictional third entity that you call the "ensemble of neurons" that exists independently of the system. But the ensemble is the system.

Did you read the actual target article? Notice that the system AND the neurons "taken as an ensemble" understand the stories in English but they do not understand the stories in Chinese. Please explain why the ensemble and the system understand English but not Chinese. Why the difference?

-gts