Re: [ontolog-forum] A No-Go Result For Human-Level Machine Intelligence‏

[Steven Ericsson-Zenith <steven@xxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 10:20 PM, John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I believe that you are simply wrong to assume, if by your use
> of it you mean, that sense or "feeling" is a "problem" that
> does  not require special explanation.

What I mean is that I sympathize with those Eastern philosophers
who don't see a difference in kind between the feelings of a spider,
a frog, a cat, or a human.

As a scholar of Charles Peirce I attribute term usage to individuals. When I say "if by your use of the term 'consciousness' you suggest that sense or feeling is a problem that does not require special explanation." I mean precisely what I say. That Eastern philosophers see no difference between the sense or feeling of a spider or a human is irrelevant. Of course there is no difference but this does not relinquish the need for an explanation: just as there is no difference between rocks falling from a tower and planets falling around the sun does not excuse Newton from his task. 

It not uncommon to find late twentieth century scientists ignoring sense or feeling. Many put it as you do. "Consciousness" they say "requires no explanation." It is a peculiar dualism of the period and I often think that it is an intentional, although certainly subliminal, slip in order to allow mystery to remain. Like "the Big Bang" it leaves room for traditional notions of God. But, scientifically, it is an entirely unjustified denial.

In terms of the subject of this forum, including "human-level intelligence" as it does and large scale language analysis, I make a particular argument that informs the effort. That is, it really does not matter how much software you right, how clever your schemas are, or how big or how fast your computer is, you can never meet your goal for these reasons. 

Regards,

Steven

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