[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI

[John Clark]

On Dec 15, 2009, at 5:25 PM, Gordon Swobe wrote:

> an artificial neuron must behave in exactly the same way to external stimuli as does a natural neuron if and only if the internal processes of that artificial neuron exactly matches those of the natural neuron.

Now that's just silly, a neuron has no way of knowing what  internal process a  neighboring neuron undergoes, it treats it as a black box.  It's only interested in what it does, not how it does it.

> To test whether you really believed this, I asked if it would matter if we constructed the zeros out of beer cans and toilet paper. Somewhat to my astonishment, you replied that such a brain would still have consciousness by "logical necessity". 

I'll be damned if I know why you were astonished, and I'll be damned to understand how it could be anything other than a logical necessity. And I don't understand the point you are trying to make, what's wrong with beer cans and toilet paper?

 John K Clark


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