Richard,
So it is with redefinitions of the term "understanding" to be synonymous
with a variety of compression. This is an egregious distortion of the
real meaning of the term, and *everything* that follows from that
distortion is just nonsense.
Richard Loosemore.
This discussion of word meanings really seems quite peripheral to the
substantive arguments Eric puts forth in "What Is Thought?"
I do not agree with all of Eric's ideas, but I found the book well
worth reading, and I suggest that you would too....
I find his more recent paper very interesting, but I also think it
makes the most sense in the context of the ideas put forth in his
book.
To be sure, Eric does not simply "redefine" understanding to mean
compression. He presents a lengthy, detailed and well-reasoned
argument that compression is a key aspect of (what psychologists mean
by) "understanding," with many references into the cog sci literature.
(And this is not the only theme of the book, BTW.)
My own view is that this is a conceptually correct view of
intelligence, but I am less certain that it is an extremely useful
view for AGI. Parts of the Novamente design are explicitly based on
this intuition, and parts are not.
-- Ben G
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