From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!pindor Tue Mar 24 09:54:44 EST 1992
Article 4383 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
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>From: pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Andrzej Pindor)
Subject: Re: Definition of understanding
Message-ID: <1992Mar10.210329.1904@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca>
Organization: UTCS Public Access
References: <1992Mar6.145636.13539@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1992Mar6.220606.22225@psych.toronto.edu> <1992Mar10.150226.14196@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <1992Mar10.171111.6954@psych.toronto.edu>
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 21:03:29 GMT

In article <1992Mar10.171111.6954@psych.toronto.edu> michael@psych.toronto.edu (Michael Gemar) writes:
>
>Again, I think you miss the point of Searle's argument.  He is, essentially,
>taking Turing up on his suggestion in "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"
>that the only way to determine if a computer is conscious is to *be* the
>machine.  This is *exactly* what the Chinese Room example attempts to do.
>The question that the Chinese Room example asks is "If *you* were the
>man inside, would *you* understand?".  No reference to how we determine
>if *others* understand is needed.  This point is explicitly made in
>Searle's original paper.  This is not an "Other Minds" problem.  Thus, Searle
>tries to avoid the very real problems of defining "understanding".  All
>you have to do is determine if *you* would have it in the CR situation.
>
As I have pointed out in a reply to your another posting, if you put things 
this way, then you have to allow for the database on Chinese symbols to have 
comparable content to your database on Engilish words. You will agree that in
principle to answer the question to the story in English (has the man eaten 
the hamburger?) you do not need, for instance, to know what hamburger looks like
or what it tastes like (it is enough to know that a burned hamburger is a no-no)
The database for a SHRDLU program (and the CR) has only the info required to
answer the questions of the type posed.

>- michael
> 
>


-- 
Andrzej Pindor
University of Toronto
Computing Services
pindor@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca


