Have you had any intellectual thoughts regarding knowledge and understanding?

Knowledge is fact-based. Understanding is relational.

Knowing that the Boston Tea Party happened on December 16, 1773 in a protest against the American colonies being taxed by Britain is knowledge.

Understanding this event, however, requires us to empathize with the people of the time and the pathos of their circumstances. When we place ourselves into their time, into their shoes, and relate their situation to memories of exploitation in our own lives, we understand the Boston Tea Party.

We do not understand it before we relate what occurred to our own lived experience.

Rally Mohawks! Bring out your axes and tell King George we'll pay no taxes on his foreign tea....—a song of 1773 by Jacob Lawrence.

This is the gap AI will need to cross if it wants to think and be human in the way we all want it to be. We don’t really need AI to compile facts for us, however well it does it. Search engines have done that beautifully for decades.

We want our robots to understand us, to have an emotional impetus behind what they say, and to respond to us with actual feeling. That’s what human interaction does for us, it allows for actual understanding between two beings.

Knowledge is great. I love knowledge. But meaning comes from understanding and the connection understanding requires.