ABSTRACT
My comments relate to two papers that describe general features of systems that attempt to understand. Neither paper is intended as a technical description, and it is to the authors’ credit that they have managed to convey the essence of their systems without barraging us with a mass of detail. (Detail that often appears quite elegant to those who are technically able to appreciate it.) Both papers are directed toward the more general issue that provides the theme of this symposium: what is the relation between knowledge and cognition? In these cases both the knowledge and the cognition are in machines. My comments will likewise be confined to some general rather than specific issues raised by these papers.
