From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!aiai!jeff Mon Dec  9 10:47:34 EST 1991
Article 1813 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Searle
Message-ID: <5767@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 2 Dec 91 21:45:49 GMT
References: <MATT.91Nov24000158@physics.berkeley.edu> <1991Nov24.195230.5843@husc3.harvard.edu> <1991Nov26.011950.1658@hilbert.cyprs.rain.com> <1991Nov26.105451.5918@husc3.harvard.edu> <RJC.91Nov29220207@brodie.cstr.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton)
Organization: AIAI, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Lines: 14

In article <RJC.91Nov29220207@brodie.cstr.ed.ac.uk> rjc@cstr.ed.ac.uk (Richard Caley) writes:
>To go back to Searle, one of the notable things about the Chinese Room
>is that it is seen as a solid argument by just about all and only
>those who accept the result before hand. It's not empty, it's
>circular. If one does not assume that there is something special about
>meat then the argument does not stand up.

What about the green slime, then?

>Why _should_ we expect to find `understanding' in Searle in the
>room rather than in the pencil or somewhere a million miles away, 

Gee.  Maybe my coffee cup is the most intelligent creature in the
universe after all.


