[ExI] The digital nature of brains.

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 29 January 2010 07:26, Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- On Wed, 1/27/10, John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>> If syntax is not only insufficient for meaning
>> but it's not even part of meaning then what good is it?
>
> Programs use syntactic rules to manipulate symbols. They look at the forms of symbols, not at their meanings.
>
> Let X = some symbol
> Let Y = the meaning of that symbol
>
> Computers can do no more than this sort of operation:
>
> 'If symbol X looks like [some form] then do [some operation] on X.'
>
> Computers will keep getting better at this but they will never know Y.

That's all brains do too, and it feels like meaning.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou