From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!news.smith.edu!milkyway!orourke Mon May 25 14:05:03 EDT 1992
Article 5614 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke)
Subject: Re: Systems Reply I (repost perhaps)
Message-ID: <1992May13.133129.7316@sophia.smith.edu>
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Organization: Smith College, Northampton, MA, US
References: <6684@skye.ed.ac.uk> <1992May12.155026.18797@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca> <6698@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 13 May 1992 13:31:29 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <6698@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton) writes:

 >(BTW, I still find it astonishing that people claim not to know
 >how to distinguish between a language they can understand and
 >one they don't.  Of course, they seldom claim this directly.
 >Instead they try to make out that it's completely mysterious
 >what Searle is talking about when he talks about understanding
 >Chinese.)

This point has been raised several times, and I don't understand it.
It seems to be irrelevant.  The difference between my understanding
of English and my lack of understanding Chinese is clear to me,
but does not help clarify the CR issues, for the following reason.  
The CR system, when memorized and executed at high speed by the
postulated superhuman brain, behaves as if it understands: it can
speak Chinese fluently.  But when I hear Chinese, not only is
there no internal understanding, my externally-observable behavior
also shows total lack of comprehension.  The CR situation is totally
different:  the internal experience is unavailable, and the behavior
is just like understanding.
	In case the point is not clear, here is a layout of the
situations:

          Situation                Internal         Behavior
          ---------                --------         --------
          me hearing English       understand       as if understanding
          me hearing Chinese       not understand   no understanding

          CR hearing Chinese       unknown          as if understanding


	So I don't see why the clear distinction between a language
I understand and one I do not, is relevant to determining whether
the CR system "understands."


