Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!jpl-devvax!poe!larryc From: larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Searle's Chinese Room Message-ID: <10297@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> Date: 8 Nov 90 18:59:43 GMT References: <16197@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <3952@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> Sender: news@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV Organization: Jet Propulsion Lab, AEG/FIST Lines: 24 In article cw2k+@andrew.cmu.edu (Christopher L. Welles) writes: >Searle argues against: > >"The distinction between the program and its realization in hardware >seems to be parallel to the distinction between the level of mental >operations and the level of brain operations.... But the equation "mind is >to brain as program is to hardware" breaks down.... the distinction >between program and realization has the consequence that the same >program could have all sorts of crazy realizations.... Weizenbaum, for >example, shows in detail how to construct a computer using a roll of toilet >paper and a pile of small stones. Similarly, the Chinese... program >can be programmed into a sequence of water pipes, a set of wind machines, or >a monolingual English speaker, none of which ... It would be interesting to ask Searle if he thinks that an alien creature with a base in an entirely different biology could be intelligent or have consciousness. Say, fluorine-silicon rather than hydrogen-carbon, using thermal energy reactions that mimic our form of oxidation. Or something even more radical: plasma life-forms living in a stars chromosphere, using fusion reactions rather than chemical reactions. Larry Carroll "Takes-us" (correct pronunciation of Texas) Dancin' Fool