[Sirenos]

Two counter-points (appreciate some counter-counter-points :):

1) The discrete sequencing is an epiphenomenon. The underlying processes are continuous changes in voltage and current flows. (I'm not sure if Planck scale considerations can throw a wrench in this though. Would love to be educated here.)

2) Our brains do not have ostensibly discrete neural processors. I don't think gradient descent is comparable to how the brain learns, but I think there is some reason to think that it is possible to learn symbolic processes in spite of having a processor that isn't especially built for it.

[mjburgess]

You're making a genetic fallacy here: that since the origin/ground of something has property C, it's product must have it too. This isnt so.

I agree that reality is fundamentally continuous. However cognition isnt; and many things arent.

A frequency is discrete. A length is continuous. These properties aren't eliminable for one another.

Here, whilst i'd agree that all physical process going on (everywhere) have essential continuous properties; they also have essential discrete ones. The issue is that grad. desc. alone does not give you the right kind of discrete ones.