hex@tub.UUCP (10/15/86)
I am new to this round, so I will hack some of my current believes,
which, as I hope, will provoke some response.
They do not intend to be complete, free of contradiction or well grounded.
1) Symbols are for communication, not processing.
2) Conscious thinking is processing ready-made for communication.
3) Using symbols for low-level processing would vast brain power.
4) Consciousness is a programmer of the brain and therefor a
meta-programmer of itself.
5) Except for very peripheral circuits, no regions of the brain are
functional sepperatable in terms of "input", "processing" and
"output".
6) There could be views of neuron activity as patterns with more or
less locality, which could mean context-dependancy.
7) Then, processing is using patterns of neuron activity as
keys for associativ memory, one could call them "micro-symbols".
These sentence are using models from computer-sience. I think that might
be helpful in doing the task "programming intelligence".
Besides, there are many different views of human, and we should not see
them as "true" or "false", rather than as different models which have served
for different tasks. I think none of these old models will fit for the
new tasks, and we have to break them in pieces to use the pieces in
building up our new models.
...
I'm a German student of computer-sience, but this does not catch up all
my interests in AI related areas. I hope, that here is room not only
for "professionals".
"We don't need facts, we need visions !"
"If GOD doesn't exist, why don't we program it ?"tjhorton@utai.UUCP (Timothy J. Horton) (10/21/86)
> > I am new to this round, so I will hack some of my current believes, > which, as I hope, will provoke some response. > They do not intend to be complete, free of contradiction or well grounded. > > 1) Symbols are for communication, not processing. You think about the world with models. If you define "symbol" to include "anything that stands for something" then how can you think without symbols? I do agree that the models I use are quite different from the symbols that I communicate with, if that's what you mean. i.e. a blind-deaf person could presumably learn a great deal about the world (build models) with no communication of symbols > 2) Conscious thinking is processing ready-made for communication. I expect that you categorize thought this way. When I play a game of squash, aware of opponent and strategy, my thinking isn't close to the level of communication. If you ask me to explain my thoughts, I have little difficulty translating them to you, but why do my words always say something a little differently than what's actually in my head? Just half an hour ago I thought of someone that I had to talk to, but couldn't remember their name. > ... > "If GOD doesn't exist, why don't we program it ?" In short, I think that you may be confusing your communication symbols with your models. On the other hand, imagination means that I don't have to know all about it to tell you all about it...