[FRIAM] A question for tomorrow

[Russ Abbott]

Nick, I can't believe you are asking such a question -- unless by "know"
you mean something very different from the common understanding. No
computer *knows* anything, although it may have lots of stored information.
(*Information *is meant in the Shannon sense.)

For example, Oxford defines
<https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/knowledge> knowledge as "Facts,
information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the
theoretical or practical understanding of a subject." This is distinct
from, for example, having access to an encyclopedia--or even having memorized
the contents of one. Turing machines, and computers in general, do not have
an *understanding *of anything--even though they may have lots of
Shannon-style information (which *we *understand as) related to some
subject.

(Like Glen, though, I am interested in the results, if any, of this
morning's meeting.)

-- Russ Abbott
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles


On Fri, Apr 26, 2019 at 2:38 PM uǝlƃ ☣ <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> What was the result of this morning's conversation?
>
> On 4/25/19 10:50 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> > What does a Turing Machine know?
>
>
> --
> ☣ uǝlƃ
>
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