Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 86.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
                       www.dhhumanist.org
                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org




        Date: 2026-07-06 18:22:13+00:00
        From: Tim Smithers <tim.smithers@cantab.net>
        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.74: repetition's point

Dear Jim,

You asked ...

    "...  can you repeat the first kiss that you ever had from
     anyone?"

No, I would say not.  And you asked ...

    "Are subsequent first kisses from any number of partners
     comparable to that first kiss ever?"

No, not in the sense of them being like the experience of your
first ever kiss.  That's to say, subsequent first kisses do
not have, and, I would say, cannot have, the specialness of
your very first ever kiss.

It takes, I think, being embodied, situated, and socially and
culturally aware and connected, at least, to be able to
experience and appreciate the specialness of the very first
time ever of something.  It's from these very first time ever
experiences that we learn what being special is, it seems to
me.  Just being told something is special doesn't do it.

And, I agree, strongly, "...  using the same word [for machine
intelligence and human intelligence] is linguistic sleight of
hand."  But, I'd say it's not just "equivocation every single
time," today, it's all too often deliberate falsification and
hype'.

-- Tim


PS: I'm not a Medium subscriber so I couldn't access all of
    "Why Sentient Machines Will Never Exist" -:(




> On 28 Jun 2026, at 09:05, Humanist <humanist@dhhumanist.org> wrote:
>
>
>              Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 40, No. 74.
>        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
>                      Hosted by DH-Cologne
>                       www.dhhumanist.org
>                Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
>
>
>
>
>        Date: 2026-06-26 15:46:40+00:00
>        From: James Rovira <jamesrovira@gmail.com>
>        Subject: Re: [Humanist] 40.70: repetition's point
>
> Thanks for the reply, Tim. Just to clarify, can you repeat the first kiss
> that you ever had from anyone? Are subsequent first kisses from any number
> of partners comparable to that first kiss ever?
>
> I don't think we can overstate the qualitative difference between inorganic
> machine intelligence and organic human intelligence. We need two different
> words -- using the same word is linguistic sleight of hand. It's
> equivocation every single time.
>
> I also think we can somewhat understand why that is so:
>
> https://medium.com/@jamesrovira/why-sentient-machines-will-never-
> exist-078fdb325b91
>
> Jim R



_______________________________________________
Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted
List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org
List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org
Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/
Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php