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Article 2224 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: yodaiken@chelm.cs.umass.edu (victor yodaiken)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle's response to silicon brain?
Message-ID: <40825@dime.cs.umass.edu>
Date: 18 Dec 91 12:21:07 GMT
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In article <40822@dime.cs.umass.edu> orourke@sophia.smith.edu (Joseph O'Rourke) writes:
>Can anyone tell me if Searle has reacted to the counter-
>Gedanken experiment of replacing each neuron in a brain
>with a silicon, digital, neuron simulator?  As I understand
>his position, he would have to maintain that such a modified
>human does not understand what they utter, even though their
>performance is no different from a normal human.

What is it with the hatred of science expressed by so many of you AI types?
There is no evidence to suggest that silicon digital neuron simulators can
mimic real neurons or that mind is no more than than the product of
some quantity of digital computation. One might as well ask whether 
Einstein ever reacted to the counter-relativity experiment of sending 
Tom Swift's rocket backwards through a black-hole. 


