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From: markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Chinese Room Experiment: empirical tests
Message-ID: <7852@uwm.edu>
Date: 25 Nov 90 05:34:25 GMT
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
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I offer you a sinple empirical test that will verify or refute the assertion
Searle makes with this thought experiment.  This is, however, a minor twist
on the original idea, since it is YOU who will be the learning agent.

The concept is real simple.  Try to learn a new language by imitation.

So here's what you should do: take out about 10 books written in a language you
don't understand (like 10 books written in Spanish).  The language can be one
that uses the Latin alphabet, or not.  It doesn't matter.

Rewrite the exact contents of each book.  That means, WRITE the contents, don't
analyse them.  Don't even think about what it all might mean, just write it.
And write it all.

This is what will happen.  Within about 60 minutes your brain WILL begin to
adapt itself to the regularities of the language.  In one day (supposing you
work about 8 hours that day), you will already have a good feel for the
syntax of the language.  In about 3 to 5 days, you'll gradually begin to
recognize stylistic regularities.

And that means you work constantly 8 hours each day, no cheating, no breaks.

After a week you will be able to reproduce very complex novel (and valid)
written segments in that language, though you may not have a glimmer of what
it all means.

At this point, you'll find yourself in a very unusual position of being able
to recognize a new written language, and even being able to write in that
language, without having the faintest idea of what you're saying.

Now to address Searle's question about whether or not you *understand* the
language or not (remember, you're working off of 10 separate sources, so
you are getting a wide perspective on the language that even foreign language
students don't get), all you need to do is look inward.  Just ask youself:
what is your subjective impression?

Trust me, it's a very weird feeling, I've tried something very similar to
this experiment a countless number of times.

I suspect that even without the aid of resources to tell you what means what,
you will converge onto a sudden understanding of the language, almost as if
you were hit by a bolt out of the blue.