scholarly journals Buddha in the Chinese Room: Empty Persons, Other Mindstreams, and the Strong AI Debate

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-101
Author(s):  
Joshua Stoll
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Robert Van Gulick

John Searle’s ‘Chinese room’ argument aims to refute ‘strong AI’ (artificial intelligence), the view that instantiating a computer program is sufficient for having contentful mental states. Imagine a program that produces conversationally appropriate Chinese responses to Chinese utterances. Suppose Searle, who understands no Chinese, sits in a room and is passed slips of paper bearing strings of shapes which, unbeknown to him, are Chinese sentences. Searle performs the formal manipulations of the program and passes back slips bearing conversationally appropriate Chinese responses. Searle seems to instantiate the program, but understands no Chinese. So, Searle concludes, strong AI is false.


2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-378
Author(s):  
David Anderson ◽  
B. Jack Copeland

“Strong artificial life” refers to the thesis that a sufficiently sophisticated computer simulation of a life form is a life form in its own right. Can John Searle's Chinese room argument [12]—originally intended by him to show that the thesis he dubs “strong AI” is false—be deployed against strong ALife? We have often encountered the suggestion that it can be (even in print; see Harnad [8]). We do our best to transfer the argument from the domain of AI to that of ALife. We do so in order to show once and for all that the Chinese room argument proves nothing about ALife. There may indeed be powerful philosophical objections to the thesis of strong ALife, but the Chinese room argument is not among them.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-49
Author(s):  
Corey Baron

This paper argues against John Searle in defense of the potential for computers to understand language (“Strong AI”) by showing that semantic meaning is itself a second-order system of rules that connects symbols and syntax with extralinguistic facts. Searle’s Chinese Room Argument is contested on theoretical and practical grounds by identifying two problems in the thought experiment, and evidence about “machine learning” is used to demonstrate that computers are already capable of learning to form true observation sentences in the same way humans do. Finally, sarcasm is used as an example to extend the argument to more complex uses of language


2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kostas Terzidis
Keyword(s):  

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael John Shaffer
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
pp. 137-141
Author(s):  
Nicolas Sabouret
Keyword(s):  

Scholarpedia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 3100 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Searle

Author(s):  
Анатолий Анатольевич Парпара

В статье излагаются взгляды известных философов Дж. Сёрла и Д. Деннета на природу сознания и полемика между ними. Оба автора являются материалистами, однако принадлежат к различным течениям: редукционизму (Деннет) и антиредукционизму (Сёрл): первое утверждает, что явления сознания без остатка сводятся к физической реальности, второе - что они обладают онтологической несводимостью. Рассматриваются мировоззренческие основания обоих мыслителей, в том числе отношение к религии, и кратко разбираются основные теоретические конструкции, которые они используют: эмерджентизм, «китайская комната», виды редукции и субъективности по Сёрлу, «пандемониум», мемы, верификационизм и гетерофеноменология по Деннету. Показано, что споры между редукционистами и антиредукционистами свидетельствуют о наличии существенных противоречий в современном материализме, которые могут быть использованы христианской апологетикой как для критических целей, так и в качестве отправной точки для построения диалога. The article discusses the views of J. R. Searle and D. C. Dennett on the nature of consciousness and their polemic. Both philosophers are materialists but take different positions on the problem of consciousness: Dennett claims that mental phenomena can be completely reduced to physical (reductionism), while Searl maintains ontological irreducibility of the former (antireductionism). The author states their world views, including attitudes towards religion, and briefly discusses the main theoretic constructs they use: emergentism, the Chinese room, types of reduction and subjectivity according to Searle, pandemonium, memes, verificationism and heterophenomenology according to Dennett. It is shown that discussions between reductionists and antireductionists reveal substantial contradictions in contemporary materialism, which may by used by Christian apologetics not only for critics, but as a starting point for a dialog as well.


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