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Article 6417 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk (El Gordo)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Inside de Bono's "Chinese Room".
Message-ID: <2747@ucl-cs.uucp>
Date: 4 Jul 92 16:00:45 GMT
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Edward de Bono proposed a test for thinkers as follows. He set up a
cylindrical "black box" on a table, in front of an audience. After 20
minutes the box falls over. The box is say a foot long (tall) and 4
inches in diameter (I am not sure of the exact dimensions).

Members of the audience are then asked to provide an explanation for
this delayed event. Suggestions include timers and ice melting, as so
on.

Strangely, nobody gave the true mechanism. What is of course
interesting for psychologists is the process of creating designs for
such a device, not what is really inside, which is reportedly very
simple.

Does the box pass the Tumbling Test? Or perhaps the Total Tumbling
Test?  That's TT and TTT for short.

Gordon.

____

Gordon Joly                                       +44 71 387 7050 ext 3703
Internet: G.Joly@cs.ucl.ac.uk        UUCP: ...!{uunet,uknet}!ucl-cs!G.Joly
Computer Science, University College London, Gower Street, LONDON WC1E 6BT


