The Chinese Room
On the axis: Can a machine think · a mind that understands
Locked in a room, one answers flawlessly in Chinese by following a rulebook, without understanding a word: is running a program ever understanding, or only giving every sign of it?
This problem is brought out by the thought experiment The Chinese Room:
You are locked in a room. Through a slot, sheets covered in Chinese symbols are passed to you, symbols you do not understand in the slightest. But you have a thick rulebook, written in your own language, that tells you: "to this mark, reply with that one." You follow the rules, you pass sheets back, and outside a Chinese reader finds your answers flawless: to them, the room understands Chinese. You, though, have understood nothing. A machine that handles our words, a chatbot that answers so well, is it doing anything other than what you do in that room?
Searle, Minds, Brains, and Programs (1980)
Is running a program, however flawless, enough to understand, or does handling symbols by their form alone stay blind to their meaning?
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Anchors: Searle · Turing