Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!isi.edu!vaxa.isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Searle's Chinese Room Message-ID: <15611@venera.isi.edu> Date: 11 Nov 90 23:22:17 GMT References: <16197@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <3952@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <10297@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> Sender: news@isi.edu Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 27 In article <10297@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> larryc@poe.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry Carroll) writes: > >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. I seem to recall seeing him address this point in one of his many publications on this subject. As I recall, he takes the rather dubious stand that ANY chemical basis for life may at least potentially possess his precious intentionality. This means that he is essentially saying that chemical processes may ultimately give rise to intentionality while computational ones cannot. This does not strike me as particularly sound, but then I am not sure that I can claim to really understand just what Searle has in mind when he brings intentionality into the argument. (Perhaps he just wishes to use it as a cross to ward off those vampires who actually write AI programs!) ========================================================================= USPS: Stephen Smoliar 5000 Centinela Avenue #129 Los Angeles, California 90066 Internet: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu "It's only words . . . unless they're true."--David Mamet