What is Symbolic Systems?
<p>May 05, 2012 09:53 AM
 
In the 17th century physics was a new frontier of science. In the 18th century chemistry had the same excitement. In the latter half of the 20th century, a new science has emerged. The same sense of adventure inspires some of the brightest minds to explore this new frontier: the <b>study of symbolic systems</b>.
 
Symbolic Systems attacks age-old questions about the relation between mind and the world, questions like the following. <b>What is information? What is intelligence? How are they related? Is intelligence more than information processing? Does intelligence require a mind? For that matter, what is a mind? How are minds related to brains? Does intelligence require some sort of biologically-based brain? Or is it possible to create artifacts that process information in a way that we can call them intelligent</b>?
 
What is the relation of mind to the external world? Is the world a creation of mind? Or does the mind explore and discover facts about an independently existing world? Or is the relation more subtle than either of these suggest? <b>What is consciousness? Does intelligence require consciousness? And how does language and meaning fit into the picture? Does thought require language or some other form of representation, or vice versa? What is it that makes language meaningful? And what is the meaning that language is so full of</b>?    .... (skipped)
 
The computer has launched the study of mind, information, and intelligence into a new era in much the same way that <b>Galileo's use of the telescope launched the new science of astronomy</b>. By allowing us to build powerful simulations of various kinds of intelligent action, it provides a methodology for the rigorous probing of questions about the<b> nature of mind, meaning, and intelligence</b>.
 
But in the Symbolic Systems Program (SSP), the computer is more than just a tool for simulating the mind. It is part of the very subject matter of the field. Why? Because <b>computer systems, robots, and people are all examples of symbolic systems, agents that use meaningful symbols to represent the world around them so as to communicate and generally act in the world</b>. <b>The notions of symbol, meaning, representation, information, and action are at the heart of the study of symbolic systems. This common core of notions arises in a variety of fields including artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and symbolic logic</b>.
 
also see the essay titled  Symbolic Systems and Cognitive Science... that explains the difference.</p>