> It doesn't, because **I see no evidence that humans can > understand the semantics of formal system in X in any sense that > a digital computer program cannot**
I just argued that humans can't understand the totality of any formal system X due to Godel's Incompleteness Theorem but the rest of this is worth addressing . . . . > Whatever this mysterious "understanding" is that you believe you > possess, **it cannot be communicated to me in language or > mathematics**. Because any series of symbols you give me, could > equally well be produced by some being without this mysterious > "understanding". Excellent! Except for the fact that the probability of the being *continuing* to emit those symbols without this "mysterious understanding" rapidly approaches zero. So I'm going to argue that understanding *can* effectively be communicated/determined. Arguing otherwise is effectively arguing for vanishingly small probabilities in infinities (and why I hate most arguments involving AIXI as proving *anything* except absolute limits c.f. Matt Mahoney and compression = intelligence). I'm going to continue arguing that understanding exactly equates to having a competent domain model and being able to communicate about it (i.e. that there is no mystery about understanding -- other than not understanding it ;-). > Can you describe any possible finite set of finite-precision observations > that could provide evidence in favor of the hypothesis that you possess > this posited "understanding", and against the hypothesis that you are > something equivalent to a digital computer? > I think you cannot. But I would argue that this is because a digital computer can have understanding (and must and will in order to be an AGI). >> So, your belief in this posited "understanding" has nothing to do with >> science, it's >> basically a kind of religious faith, it seems to me... '-) If you're assuming that humans have it and computers can't, then I have to strenuously agree. There is no data (that I am aware of) to support this conclusion so it's pure faith, not science. ------------------------------------------- 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=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
