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From: HAYES@SPAR-20.ARPA.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: AIList Digest   V5 #170
Message-ID: <12316303944.43.HAYES@SPAR-20.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 19:18:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: SPAR-20.12316303944.43.HAYES
Posted: Mon Jul  6 19:18:12 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jul-87 13:46:47 EDT
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Talk about walking into a minefield, but here goes. Concerning the Harnad 
grounding problem.  This is lovely stuff, and I save every word for later
reading, but it does seem recently to have gone from interesting discussions
and arguments to a rather repetitive grinding over the main points again and
again.  THe result is that Stevan is reduced to repeating himself and 
reiterating his points in the face of what must seem to him to be increasing
stubbornness.  I seem to be seeing more and more phrases like '..as I have
emphasised earlier..'.  All of us who teach are familiar with the syndrome 
where the 35th occurrence of the same error makes us more exasperated than the
first one did.  

Let me suggest that perhaps nothing much new is being said 
in these discussions any more, and certainly no-one is saying anything which
is going to cause Stevan to change any of his positions.  Perhaps the right
thing to do is for people to send their comments directly to Harnad, and for
him to send us the selections which HE considers worth public airing, together
with his responses.  That way we will be spared reading all this stuff which 
is, apparently, of such low intellectual caliber, and Laws will have an easier
time, and public feelings will not get to the point which produces letters
like David Harwood's.

Just an idea.

Pat Hayes
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