http://cogprints.org/1592/
Computation Is Just Interpretable Symbol Manipulation: Cognition Isn't
Computation is interpretable symbol manipulation. Symbols are objects that are manipulated on the basis of rules
operating only on the symbols' shapes , which are arbitrary in relation to what they can be interpreted as meaning. Even if one
accepts the Church/Turing Thesis that computation is unique, universal and very near omnipotent, not everything is a computer,
because not everything can be given a systematic interpretation; and certainly everything can't be given every systematic
interpretation. But even after computers and computation have been successfully distinguished from other kinds of things, mental
states will not just be the implementations of the right symbol systems, because of the symbol grounding problem: The
interpretation of a symbol system is not intrinsic to the system; it is projected onto it by the interpreter. This is not true of our
thoughts. We must accordingly be more than just computers. My guess is that the meanings of our symbols are grounded in the
substrate of our robotic capacity to interact with that real world of objects, events and states of affairs that our symbols are
systematically interpretable as being about.
Harnad, Stevan
Cognitive Psychology
Artificial Intelligence
Neural Nets
Robotics
Philosophy of Mind
Stevan
Harnad