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

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Fri, 1/29/10, Spencer Campbell <lacertilian at gmail.com> wrote:

> As far as I can tell, the only thing DWAP does is make
> associations; it does not use those associations to form 
> sentences in order to communicate. This might be deliberate. 

Yes. I invented DWAP precisely because some people here had suggested that the association of symbols by computers somehow solves the symbol grounding problem or "gives meaning" to symbols. If that were so then DWAP should have conscious and detailed understanding of the meaning of every English word. 

But DWAP has no more understanding of words than does the digital dictionary it references, and the digital dictionary has no more understanding of the words than does the paper dictionary from which it was made. DWAP cannot understand words for the same reason that a piece of paper cannot understand the words you write on it.

To your point: we can if you like add to the program the capability to converse in seemingly meaningful ways such that it passes the Turing test. It will then appear to understand words without actually understanding them.

-gts