On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 10:55 PM, Harry Chesley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > As I've come out of the closet over the list tone issues, I guess I should > post something AI-related as well -- at least that will make me net neutral > between relevant and irrelevant postings. :-) > > One of the classic current AI issues is grounding, the argument being that a > dictionary cannot be complete because it is only self-referential, and *has* > to be grounded at some point to be truly meaningful. This argument is used > to claim that abstract AI can never succeed, and that there must be a > physical component of the AI that connects it to reality. > > I have never bought this line of reasoning. It seems to me that meaning is a > layered thing, and that you can do perfectly good reasoning at one (or two > or three) levels in the layering, without having to go "all the way down." > And if that layering turns out to be circular (as it is in a dictionary in > the pure sense), that in no way invalidates the reasoning done. > > My own AI work makes no attempt at grounding, so I'm really hoping I'm right > here. >
Hi, It's too fuzzy an argument. To avoid long question-answers that would muddy the discussion and probably won't lead anywhere, could you link to some writeup (e.g. a paper) of what specifically you are arguing against or for? "Physical component" that "connects" AI to "reality" to make it "truly meaningful"? These are all bad bugaboo philosophical words, and they have many different, often misguided, interpretations. You need to resolve this ambiguity in order for your argument to obtain specific meaning. For example, from your side of the argument, what is the "meaning" thing and why do you need it? What is your concept of the "grounding" thing that others are talking about and that you think is unnecessary? -- Vladimir Nesov [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://causalityrelay.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=108809214-a0d121 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
