[ExI] Meaningless Symbols.

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Thu, 1/14/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> You've said that formal programs can't produce
> understanding but physical activity can produce understanding. 
> Computers not only run formal programs, they also do physical activity. 
> You have a hunch that the sort of physical activity in computers is 
> incapable of producing understanding. But a hunch is not good enough in a
> philosophical argument. 

I don't consider it a "hunch". I look at programs (and I write them) and I look at the hardware that implements them (and I work on that too) and I see only syntactical form-based operations. And I understand and agree with those who say syntax cannot give semantics, that grammar cannot give vocabulary. 

It's last point on which we disagree. You want to believe that performing form-based syntactic operations in software or hardware will magically give rise to human-like understanding. 

gotta run. more later

-gts