The quote is literal, but I misinterpreted its point:
it was not an attack on the possibility of modelling the mind with
(incomplete) formal systems. It was intended to dismiss the attempt
to use Gödel's theorem to argue against the possibility of AI.
Here is a more accurate quote:
My intention was to "brush off"
the attempt to apply Gödel's theorem, not to offer any criticism of any
method of modelling the mind.
I do not believe that any consistent formal system will
provide a good model for human reasoning, but I have no
reservations about whether digital computers might model the
mind.
The idea that human reasoning
conforms to the constraints required for the applicability of
Gödel's
theorem does not as far as I am aware motivate the existing modelling
approaches.
[back to paper]