D+iz+a+n+k+Meister's Journal: A Few Thoughts

RE: Vulcans and Godel

In light of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, would there really be a race totally centered on logic? It would seem illogical to do so. . .at the very least it would be incomplete. Logic seems insufficient for living.

Hofstadler and Searle

Speaking of Godel, I think Hofstadler and Searle are saying the same thing regarding strong AI.

Before I give Searle too much credit, I want to say that I think the Chinese room "thought experiment" is a load of crap. However, Searle's summary of the experiment is worth considering:

• Programs are purely syntactical.
• Minds have semantical content.
• Syntax by itself is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics.
• Therfore, programs will never have semantical content.

I buy the summary, though not the thought experiment.

Now, this really seems to stick a fork in the Strong AI that believes that consciousness is mere symbol manipulation. And after a few months of meditation on the subject, I have concluded that Searle is right -- this form of Strong AI has abstracted away "too much from the actual physical implementation of the computational processes involved in thinking."

But what about the so-called "active symbols" that Hofstadtler proposes?

I think that's the key. Essentially, a non-human intelligence would probably be realized in a machine that, on the whole, was NOT a Universal Turing Machine. It's probably made up of a lot of pieces that are UTC's, but on the whole it isn't one.

The sections in Hofstadler's book on the location of meaning are exactly what I'm talking about. I've never made a conscious decision to only analyze the "visible" portion of the E/M spectrum. But because of that very limitation(and sufficient time to "learn" about it), I am now able to associate symbols in my mind with external objects that I "see."

Thanks to Godel, we know that truth is bigger than proof. All Searle has is a proof, though not a proof that Strong AI(in general) is impossible, just impossible on a(in a) UTC.

Vinge's Singularity

The preceeding thought is not so much a slam against Searle as it is an affirmation of Vinge's Singularity.

I can't believe we "re-elected" GW!!!