On Monday, November 29, 1999 3:11 AM Rob Harris rob@hbinternet.co.uk wrote:
> >"understanding" is the tongue that tastes itself
>
> Yes, I too can give a vague description of the concept.
I don't think it's vague so much as nonsense.:)
> >to make the program "understand" introduce a paradoxical
> >circuit
>
> You can get these in radio shack?
>
> >its inability to understand anything will
> >surmount to its "understanding" of everything.
>
> No it won't.
I concur. If that would give a machine understanding, then how come computer programs with bugs in them don't start having conversations with us?
I think understanding is going to be a lot harder and a lot easier than that. Harder because it will not involve some sophomoric zen-like formulae. Easier because if we just look at how we apprehend the world we might be able to just develop machines that understand by mimicking us, then removing the inessential.
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/