Chris and Pat, (01)
Part of the reason why I have been looking at things
from a different point of view is that I've been
influenced by Peirce's semiotics. (02)
I don't want to get into a lecture on semiotics, but
there are some points that may clarify the issues: (03)
1. The inputs (sensory stimulations of various kinds,
including internal stimulations from hormones and
various organs) are signs. (04)
2. The outputs (behavior of various kinds, especially
language) are also signs. (05)
3. Between the inputs and outputs are many kinds of
neural signals, which are transformations of the
inputs in complex interactions with stored signs. (06)
We don't need to know anything about human psychology
or neurophysiology to realize that the internal signs
are subject to logical constraints imposed by the nature
of the inputs and outputs from and about the world. (07)
The robots that AI has been trying to build are subject
to very similar logical constraints, and so are other
animals on earth or outside the earth. (08)
When you look at the issues from this perspective, the
academic disciplines of epistemology, ontology, and
philosophy of science appear in a very different light. (09)
Instead of the goal of teachable modules for writing
textbooks, the central focus becomes the study of the
logical constraints on the internal signs and processes
that can most effectively enable any animal or robot
attain its goals (including any intermediate subgoals). (010)
From that perspective, Tarski-style constraints on
the correspondence of the internal signs with reality
are important. But quibbles about how any particular
logicians or philosophers discussed those constraints
are much less significant. (011)
The structure of those internal signs is what I was
trying to characterize in the middle part of my diagram.
And the structures of those middle signs are influenced
by perception, by language about perceptible things,
and by years of trial and error in interactions
with those things. The information flows in both
directions, back and forth over long periods of time. (012)
John (013)
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