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#131684 08/22/04 06:20 PM
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Sorry, no. It refers to a Gedankenexperiment ... which is his [Searle's] attempt at a refutation to "strong" AI (i.e., that we can build machines that think).

Your clarification makes the Matrix reference I had in mind even more apt.

You are "the one", jheem.

And now that "the one" has come, Wordminstrel can [and should] depart.

Adieu.

It is well that I go in any event.

I have just discovered to my horror that Wordminstrel has become an "enthusiast", and with each new post he climbs higher into the hierarchy, as though into Amemeba's "blue skies", where, eventually, he will surely lose his soul floating in the amorphous ethers ... a friend to all but "the one" who comes.


#131685 08/22/04 07:51 PM
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Posts: 89
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Now we've done it. We've run Wordsminster off.
Now what? Should we beg for his return? Or respect his decision to leave and say nothing. I say say nothing.

Oh well, see you all later, I've suddenly got an urge to go listen to some Strauss. Maybe Ein Heldenleben...no wait! Til Eulenspiegel. Yes thats it... Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks.






#131686 08/22/04 10:03 PM
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What this thread needs is a really lousy pun from TEd.


#131687 08/22/04 10:08 PM
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we've run wordminstral off? Ha, that's a good one..

wordminstral is like that cat who keeps coming back.. announcements of his departure, are usually false (even when they come from him!) and when true, never very long lasting...

Fer sure, one thing that we all can agree on is, we are all pretty self determaning.

i come, or go, stay, post, scan or ignore based on my needs, not on anyone's dictums, and everyone here does pretty much the same.. i don't think my misspelling have the power to drive tsuwm off, (even if i have cost him a few hairs) and no matter how much of fetish exist with washing pigs, i still check in..

AWAD is like a long established habit, once developed, the habit pretty much sticks. (even when we make claims we are giving it up for good, Really this time i mean it..



#131688 08/22/04 10:35 PM
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Posts: 3,467
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Well that would be a first!

Actually, you may not have noticed my lack of presence in the preceding fifty-some posts. I cannot say that I find this sort of discussion interesting to me personally. I generally don't do well in deep philosophical discussions because I'm really not a deep sort of guy. I guess I don't really care about when a word is or isn't a word or when a word is a symbol or whether a digitus impudicus is a word or a symbol or a referent or whatever. Please note that I'm not belittling the discussion, I'm belittling myself.

I've read some of the stuff about semantics by Hayakawa and some other similarly boring people, and it turns me off, primarily because I don't find myself gaining anything from the interminable prose he and others of that ilk seem capable of generating. I'm much more interested in a discussion of why something is humorous because humor is so important to me.

TEd



TEd
#131689 08/22/04 11:18 PM
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Hayakawa [...] and others of that ilk

OK, that's it. Now I'm logging off forever and a day. Now let's see. What should my next avatar be called? Varaha or Vamana? You really all will be sorry. (Stamps foot.) I'll hold my breath until I'm blue in the face. OK, that should come in handy as an avatar. (Stamps foot again and disappears in puff of smoke.)


#131690 08/22/04 11:50 PM
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When the discussion turned to animal response to language, I thought I would mention talking birds--specifically, my daughter's cockatoos.
When I remarked that one of them said very sensible sounding things, I was told that she once said, being out of doors at twilight, "Its's raining." My daughter said, "No, you silly bird, it's getting dark". I thought that, since the bird was afraid of rain and of the dark, that wasn't really silly, just a minor confusion of "words for things I'm afraid of".
Another of her birds, seeing a human infant in a vet's waiting room, and not being accustomed to such, asked "What kind of bird is that?"
Now, are these birds more intelligent than their wild kin who have no human contact, thus no human vocabulary?
Is it risky business to keep teaching chimps, gorillas, and yes, perhaps dogs and birds "better" ways of communicating, even after seeing PLANET OF THE APES?
But now I don't know if I'm communicating with anyone or if you all minimized AWAD TALK and went web-surfing. Or just surfing.


#131691 08/23/04 10:43 AM
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It is well that I go in any event.

You can say that again, laddie ... but don't trouble yourself.

We've all had it up to here with your insufferable, sanctimonious "honestness". Fat lot of friends it made you!

Show up around here again, Wordminstrel, and I'll personally crash a few symbols around your ears.

We've got drivel running like sludge around here without you swinging your smudge pot like incense.

"What is a word?"!!! If you don't know the answer to that, Wordminstrel, you shouldn't ask.

Begone! And good riddance!


#131692 08/23/04 01:10 PM
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re "Begone! And good riddance!"

And, by the way, don't send any of your Wordmongrels around here to torment us. Or I'll have something to say to them, too.




#131693 08/23/04 01:14 PM
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"What is a word?"!!! [...] Begone! And good riddance!


You oughtn't to be so tough on yourself, Gnatminister. Now where did I put that boon?


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