creators_name: Harnad, Stevan editors_name: Powers, D.M.W. editors_name: Flach, P.A. type: journalp datestamp: 2001-06-18 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:41 metadata_visibility: show title: Grounding Symbols in the Analog World with Neural Nets ispublished: pub subjects: comp-sci-mach-dynam-sys subjects: neuro-mod subjects: phil-mind full_text_status: public keywords: neural nets, symbol grounding, connectionism, symbolism, computationalism, Searle's Chinese Room, Turing Test, robotics abstract: Harnad's main argument can be roughly summarised as follows: due to Searle's Chinese Room argument, symbol systems by themselves are insufficient to exhibit cognition, because the symbols are not grounded in the real world, hence without meaning. However, a symbol system that is connected to the real world through transducers receiving sensory data, with neural nets translating these data into sensory categories, would not be subject to the Chinese Room argument. 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