1Z wrote:
>
> Brent Meeker wrote:
>
>>1Z wrote:
>>
>>>Brent Meeker wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>That's not very interesting for non-conscious computations, because
>>>>>they are only useful or meaningful if they can be observed or interact with their
>>>>>environment. However, a conscious computation is interesting all on its own. It
>>>>>might have a fuller life if it can interact with other minds, but its meaning is
>>>>>not contingent on other minds the way a non-conscious computation's is.
>>>>
>>>>Empirically, all of the meaning seems to be referred to things outside the
>>>>computation. So if the conscious computation thinks of the word "chair" it doesn't
>>>>provide any meaning unless there is a chair - outside the computation.
>>>
>>>
>>>What about when a human thinks about a chair ? What about
>>>when a human thinks about a unicorn?
>>
>>He thinks about a white horse with a horn, both of which exist.
>
>
> But the unicorn per se doesn't. "Unicorn" doesn't have a referent, but
> the parts of which it is a composite have referents. That's a step
> away form referntiallty. And we
> can take other stepts, talking about quarks and branes.
> Evetually our referential theory of meaning will
> only be referntial in the sense that an an empty glass is a
> glass that is not at all full.
>
>
>>What is the meaning
>>of "Zeus"...it refers through descriptions that have meaningful elements.
>
>
>>>What about a computer thinking
>>>about a unicorn?
>>
>>That's what we're puzzling over. Is it meaningless if the computer isn't
>>conscious...but refers to a horse with a horn if the computer is conscious?
>
>
> It doesn't refer to a horned horse because there aren't any.
"Horse with a horn" =/= "horned horse" (c.f. Man with a Horn).
>
> perhaps if we understood how such non-referential meaning works,
> it would give us a clue to how consciousness works.
I doubt it. Such "non-referential" meaning doesn't seem that hard to understand.
It's essentially just mix-and-match. It would be pretty easy to program a computer
to do it.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Sat Sep 09 2006 - 02:28:48 PDT