[ExI] extropy-chat Digest, Vol 77, Issue 1

[Ben Zaiboc]

> From: Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] How to ground a symbol
> Message-ID: <589903.82027.qm at web36507.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
> 
> --- On Sun, 1/31/10, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > In future, whenever the system sees a rose, it will
> know
> > whether it's a red rose or not, because there'll be a
> part
> > of its internal state that matches the symbol "Red".?
> 
> The system you describe won't really "know" it is red. It
> will merely act as if it knows it is red, no different from,
> say, an automated camera that acts as if it knows the light
> level in the room and automatically adjusts for it. 

Please explain what "really knowing" is.

I'm at a loss to see how something that acts exactly as if it knows something is red can not actually know that.  In fact, I'm at a loss to see how that sentence can even make sense.

You're claiming that something which not only quacks and looks like, but smells like, acts like, sounds like, and is completely indistinguishable down to the molecular level from, a duck, can in fact not be a duck.  That if you discover that the processes which give rise to the molecules and their interactions are due to digital information processing, then, suddenly, no duck.

Ben Zaiboc