CSE 719: Computational Theories of Consciousness, Fall 2009 ======================================================================== Weyhrauch (1995) quotes (for bib info, see online bibliography) ======================================================================== 1. "the meaning of a sentence is not something that can be determined independently of the hearer. That is, for me, the meaning of a sentence is the effect that its being heard has on the hearer. This interpretation precludes the idea that meanings can be represented as structures that are independent of, and outside, the individual who is doing the hearing." (p.25, para 2) 2. "if we are going to understand how to build robots, we need to accept the fact that the only things that we have to work with are its internal state and the effect on this state when something comes in contact with it. In the case of speech this means what he hears. So we, standing outside, may *imagine* that there is a speaker that's causing this hearing to happen, but... if we want to understand how the robot works, the only information we can use is what actually impinges on him. ... Even the existence of a speaker is irrelevant. ...the change in the individual is going to be the same, and that's all we get to measure." (p.30, last para) 3. "The gossip principle is the ability, at any moment, for a system to answer the question, "What have you been doing lately?" In other words, if you are thinking about self-consciousness, the ability to ask yourself the question: what have *I* been doing lately?" (p. 33, para 0)