[ExI] The symbol grounding problem in strong AI

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Fri, 12/25/09, Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at gmail.com> wrote:

>>... Searle wants to know what possesses some
>> intelligent people to attribute "mind" to mere programs
>> running on computers, programs which in the final analysis
>> do nothing more interesting than kitchen can-openers.
> 
> This is where you lose me.  You've got the faulty
> theoretical confuse with the indisputably empirical: a theory,... no, 
> not even a theory,.. a funky-ass notion of mind, thoroughly corrupted 
> by a persistent pre-conscious legacy of spiritualism, versus the blunt,
> mundane, un-hyped FACT ...... of mind .

People have argued along lines similar to yours that Searle subscribes to or espouses some sort of spiritualistic/mystical dualism of mind/matter. I once thought so myself until recently, when I did the research and learned otherwise. I would describe him as a "tough-minded realist".

As in my paragraph that you quoted, he really does wonder what possesses intelligent people to attribute "mind" to computers. If computers have minds then so do kitchen can-openers and the word loses all meaning. Does the abacus have a mind merely because humans use it to do maths?

People have since the beginning of recorded history shown a propensity to anthropomorphize. Humans imagine gods with human-like minds, trees with human-like minds, mountains and weather patterns with human-like minds, and so on. In the last century humans started assigning these same sorts of human-like mental properties to these kitchen appliances we call computers. Searle puts the kibosh on it, and then people like you call *him* the spiritualist!

In any case if you have a philosophical bent and a sincere interest in the subject, (and don't want merely to join the crowd in throwing spitwads at Searle while shooting me as the messenger), then I invite you to read this paper:

Why I Am Not a Property Dualist
http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/searle-final.pdf

In this paper Searle explains why charges such as those you have levied miss his point completely. 

-gts