Understanding 'Understanding'

Disclaimer
The following work is the result of my personal views and speculations. I do not claim any of my work depicting the only truth. The views expressed in the following work are the views I might have held at the time of it's creation and are subject to change.

It is often argued that computers can't understand what we humans do. Well, I do agree to it to an extent.

But then who is to say that we humans, understand in a way we think we understand. So first, let us get a clear perspective
what really understanding is all about.

Now imagine an apple for example. How to understand an apple? The first thing that comes to my mind would be an image of an apple. I can imagine, the red shiny color that seemed so enticing that my mouth is almost watering. Will this, I suppose would be from my previous experience of eating and apple and finding it rather satisfying for my senses. So you can say that the image of an apple also links to my mind the taste of an apple. Also associated with that word Apple in my mind is the intoxicating smell of a freshly cut apple. This of course is affiliated to my sense of smelling. I also can hear in my mind the crunchy noise it makes, when I take the first bite.

And of course, there are other thoughts related to an apple. The fact that it is a fruit. The fact that it is grown on a tree. The fact that its crust has annoying little seeds in it. But then, without all these other concepts or thoughts, the Apple itself would hold no meaning whatsoever. It would then only be a collection of memories related to the experience of an apple, including visual, tactual, smell, taste, and possibly the sound affiliated with it. The understanding of apple, only acquires reality in our minds after we can interrelate it to other thoughts and concepts.

So, in my opinion, a newborn child has no understanding of its surroundings, in the way we perceive understanding. It only has sentient information interrelated amongst each other, through its experiences. Then eventually the child conceptualizes different ideas and interrelates them. This process takes a whole new level, when verbal associations are made with the ideas, concepts or objects. This enables a much broader interrelation among concepts.

So, effectively, what understanding is, is the interlinking of sentient experiences. Because even the verbal association is a product of the sound of the word which describes the idea and the graphical representation of the symbols, which in effect are the combination of the symbols which make the script of the language we are familiar with.