What is understanding? What would it take for a machine to understand?

What is understanding?  What do we mean when we say we understand something but a machine does not understand it, even if it can give the same answers?  What would it take for a machine to understand it?




I'd be interested to understand goldsteins thereom and transfinite induction. I wonder if goedel statements are known to be true due to other systems of proof.  What is it about goedels thereom that is so astounding? That you can formulate statements that are unprovable?  What is the link btw a language and these rules of proof?

What is understanding? We know what it isn't. Eg a calculator doesn't understand maths, it just performs it bit similarly we can perform calculations And not understand what we are doing.

Penrose gives example of human understanding as some chess move that is obvious to a human player bit not to the best chess program bit really there the human is just applying sone other evaluation scheme.  Or perhaps understanding is the ability to reason and give reasons for things.

A computer cd be programmer to give reasons for things, or mention the significance of things, we still wdnt agreethat it can understand.  It's still just all mechanical.

Perhaps what's missing is awareness and free will. Or can something understand without these things.

What's different is that as humans we can make intuitive decisions and then on hindsight justify them. A computer wdnt do this. But if we programmed it to it wd still be just acting mechanically.

It's hard to say what understanding is. It's got to do with the fact that we can talk about something or pit it in a context.  Understanding is knowing the reasons for things or knowing how they relate to other things. 

We can say we understand arithmetic bcos we know why we are doing it.  It's like u need awareness of the process that's being carried out.  Ability to reflect on something.

What does understanding encompas? A process being carried out? What about vision ? There are doubtless processes being carried put by our brain there that we aren't aware of.  Understanding is putting something in context, knowing the reasons for things, being able to model what will happen. Eg do u understand what was going on in that movie? That wd involve a model of what the characters were doing, how they interact, what external factors are significant. A computer could , if programmed , evaluate a scene and make predictions about what wd happen, wd they understand then?

It still seems like some kind if awareness or sentience is necessary.  What makes humans different from an intricate interplay of progams.

Is self awareness programmable? What makes self awareness possible?  It doesn't seem right that something non conscious can understand anything, it is just mechanical processes.

What makes self awareness possible?

What is sentience? why can't we define it in scientific terms.  Behaviour can be explained, behaviour can be used to indicate self awareness, but how do u explain our feelings and our sense of self- awareness.

I feel alive. I can see and interpret what i see. I am not aware really of what I am about to say, I notice words as they come out of me, I don't really know what I will end up saying but I have a general idea. I can make up goals and then be aware that I am working on them.  Maybe I am not aware as I think.

If consciousness was a kind of illusion, if the machine in the Chinese room was conscious to equal extents, it wd still be interesting to know why we are so confused about it.  Something about coming up with a conclusion yourself , rather than it being the result of some mechanical process.  Perhaps an analogy to the Chinese room argument is pain. It's not just a physical reaction, we also feel it. It is a mental state.

Perhaps there is a layer of processing above the physical mechanics, where we have feelings and perceptions, including the perception of self. These things are helpful on making predictions. Without being able to imagine pain, we may not be able to avoid it. 

Maybe qualia are not shareable and tf subjective, but imagine some kind of device that wd let u see someone elses inner world. Maybe u wd see that their colour scheme was quite different. Maybe things that were blue for u were red for them and vice versa. But u wd then have some way of relating your qualia.

What about things that u had never experienced before?

Penrose has similar notion of 'understanding' - to understand something is to know what it's for, what the implications are, and probably some sense of awareness. 

What things are not computational? Are there any things we can do that are not computational?