[ExI] Religious idiocy (was: digital nature of brains)

[Eric Messick]

Stefano:
>Eric:
>> Meaning is attached to word symbols when the word symbols are
>> associated with sense symbols, not with other word symbols.
>
>Not all symbols are words - and in fact the word "three" can be
>associated with the number "3" - but "sense symbols" sounds as a
>dubious and redundant concept.

I should probably explain what I mean by the phrase "sense symbols".

As a brain thinks, we can consider it as activating and processing
sequences of sets of symbols.  This is analogous to a CPU having
various bit patterns active on internal busses, with the bit patterns
representing symbols.

Some of the symbols in the brain map 1 to 1 with words in a spoken
language, and we would refer to them as word symbols.  Other brain
symbols appear within the brain as a direct result of the stimulation
of sensory neurons in the body, and this is what I mean by a "sense
symbol".

It's basically the internal representation of directly sensed external
events.

Actually, I was partially mistaken in saying that meaning cannot be
attached to a word by association with other words.  A definition
could associate a new word with a set of old words, and if all of the
old words have meanings (by being grounded or by association) the new
one can acquire meaning as well.

-eric