- Edited
Lorraine Ford
The idea that man-made symbols mean something, or anything, to the non-human part of the universe, and to computers/ AIs in particular, is at the root of techno-idiocy.
This techno-idiocy is what founded the woo-woo “Monty Python Institute of Future Life” (if I’ve got the name right), and techno-idiocy is behind the current ludicrous and woo-woo discussions between Robert McEachern, and Georgina Woodward on the FQxI Forums website.
In fact, nothing in nature apart from human beings knows about, or responds to, man-made symbols of the world. E.g., binary digits occur nowhere in nature, except as a concept in the minds of human beings. Apart from the minds of human beings, nothing in nature knows about, or responds to, the binary digit concept, or to man-made symbols of the binary digit concept. All nature knows about is categories (like mass or position or spin), mathematical relationships between these categories, and numbers that apply to the categories. But, once again, nature doesn’t know about the man-made symbols that people use to represent these real-world categories, relationships, and numbers.
There are no binary digits in computers. Specially arranged circuits, transistors and voltages are used to represent the man-made binary digit concept, and there is a fair bit of specialist knowledge and circuit complexity required to get the circuits, transistors and voltages to perform as required in order to correctly represent the binary digit concept. Depending on the setup and the components to be used, various ranges of voltages can be used to represent the binary digits concept, where the higher voltages in the selected range can be used to represent the zero binary digit concept, OR the lower voltages in the selected range can be used to represent the zero binary digit concept. In other words, there is no rule whereby voltages can be measured, and calculations made using the voltage measurements, to reveal the binary digits, and the words, sentences and mathematical symbols that the binary digits are supposed to represent.
The idea that computers/ AIs know the meaning of these man-made binary digit symbols, or word, sentence, and mathematical symbols, is the woo-woo lunacy that fills the minds of the techno-idiots.