Xref: utzoo comp.ai:5252 sci.philosophy.tech:1802 talk.philosophy.misc:3338 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!samsung!munnari.oz.au!bruce!mmcg From: mmcg@bruce.OZ (Mike Mc Gaughey) Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.philosophy.tech,talk.philosophy.misc Subject: Re: Can Machines Think? Message-ID: <1761@bruce.OZ> Date: 20 Dec 89 13:39:13 GMT References: Organization: Monash Uni. Computer Science, Australia Lines: 19 sm5y+@andrew.cmu.edu (Samuel Antonio Minter) [20 Dec 89 05:20:12 GMT]: > 1988:11:19:05:13 SFT > > Couldn't you use the Chinese room analogy to prove that Humans don't > truly understand either. In this case the matter/energy in the human body > take the role of the man in the room and all his stacks of cards, while > the basic laws of physics take the role of the instuction book. After all No - this only proves that the laws of physics don't think (just as the man the room didn't understand). The total system behavior (i.e of a brain) is that of an entity which _does_ understand the concepts represented by the symbols being manipulated. Mike. -- Mike McGaughey ACSNET: mmcg@bruce.cs.monash.oz "You have so many computers, why don't you use them in the search for love?" - Lech Walesa :-)