Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!bilby.cs.uwa.oz.au!bilby!fraser From: fraser@bilby.cs.uwa.oz.au (Fraser Wilson) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: Searle's Chinese Room Message-ID: Date: 10 Nov 90 09:36:48 GMT References: <16197@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <3952@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <10297@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> Organization: Dept. Computer Science, University of Western Australia. Lines: 22 In <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. 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. Searle's argument had nothing to do with conciousness residing in alternative biologies. What he was essentially saying was that a _formal system_ (which is what a computer is) can never be conscious. I think the systems reply essentially chucks this one right out the window where it belongs :-). > Larry Carroll > "Takes-us" (correct pronunciation of Texas) > Dancin' Fool Fraser Wilson. (fraser@bilby.cs.uwa.oz)