I was reading Perceptron's by Minsky's and Papert's book and there is a part where they discuss symbolic systems and one part of it says:
Symbolic systems yield gains of their own...Above all else they offer us the prospect that computers share: of not being bound by the small details of the parts of which they are composed.
I am having issues knowing if I understand this. It seems that the fact that "Symbols" point to "ideas" and the small details don't matter resonates with the idea of abstraction. Furthermore the fact that one of these "Symbols" might be composed of others resonates with modularity.
Is this what Minksy's and Papert were after in that paragraph? Its just not clear to me. What advantages of computers are they referring too?
