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To: Cannonball Bill

“Its either I think, therefore I am, or its I am, therefore I think.”

Actually, to get Descartes meaning, it would be best phrased as “I think therefore I know that I am.”


7 posted on 11/13/2010 5:37:33 AM PST by Tublecane
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To: Tublecane

His words were “Je pense donc je suis” (original in French not the Latino “Cogito ergo sum” often attributed). He may have MEANT “I think therefore I know that I am”, but his words were “I think therefore I am.” I think your phrasing makes more sense, however. Otherwise the point could be made in a number of other ways, such as “I hear, therefore I am” or “I eat, therefore I am.”

Frankly, I never thought that this statement was very deep, or even true. Much exists that has no knowledge of its existence. And it is not the conscienceness of one’s existence that makes one exist. A stone has no awareness of its existence, yet it exists. The “therefore” makes no sense.


26 posted on 11/13/2010 6:27:16 AM PST by NCLaw441
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To: Tublecane

Precisely. It will not be “AI” until the computer is “self-aware” and self-programming. Short of that, it’s just a really fast number-cruncher.


27 posted on 11/13/2010 6:32:10 AM PST by Sudetenland (Slow to anger but terrible in vengence...such is the character of the American people.)
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To: Tublecane
Actually, to get Descartes meaning, it would be best phrased as “I think therefore I know that I am.”

It needs to be followed up with, "Of course I could be wrong".

28 posted on 11/13/2010 6:33:35 AM PST by trebb ("If a man will not work, he should not eat" From 2 Thes 3)
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