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From: markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Chinese Room Experiment: empirical tests
Message-ID: <7989@uwm.edu>
Date: 1 Dec 90 02:05:41 GMT
References: <7852@uwm.edu> <1990Nov26.055429.8883@agate.berkeley.edu>
Sender: news@uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Lines: 18

On the question:
If you undergo intensive immersion training of a language using no translation
references is it possible to eventually converge onto an understanding of that
language?

In article <1990Nov26.055429.8883@agate.berkeley.edu> jwl@garnet.berkeley.edu (James Wilbur Lewis) writes:
>I'll buy the idea that you might have a good feel for the syntax of a language
>after such an intensive program of imitation, but *understanding*, in the sense
>that Searle uses the term?  No way!
>
>-- Jim Lewis

A very similar situation is going on collectively with researchers who are
progressively deciphering Mayan Hieroglyphic text ... and recently there has
been some success at partially undercovering the meaning of the symbols.

Even the little understanding accomplished to date is enough to prove that
understanding may be possible without any substantial external references...


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