Artificial Intelligence, Mind & the Future
The Chinese Room Argument
A thought experiment arguing that a computer executing a program — however convincingly it behaves — cannot be said to genuinely understand, have a mind, or be conscious, regardless of how human-like its output is.
Proponents
John Searle
Evidence For
A widely discussed thought experiment: a person who manually follows a rulebook to produce correct Chinese answers, without understanding a word of Chinese, seems to show that correctly manipulating symbols — all any computer program does — isn't the same thing as understanding them.
Evidence Against
The "systems reply," the most common rebuttal, argues Searle is asking the wrong part of the system whether it understands: the person in the room is just one component, like a single neuron, and understanding may belong to the whole room-system rather than to him individually.
Real Sources
Transmissions
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