Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!torsqnt!tmsoft!masnet!canremote!sm5y+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: sm5y+@andrew.cmu.edu@canremote.uucp (sm5y+@andrew.cmu.edu)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Can Machines Think?
Message-ID: <89122504120274@masnet.uucp>
Date: 21 Dec 89 05:05:00 GMT
Organization: Canada Remote Systems Limited, Mississauga, ON, Canada
Lines: 37

From: sm5y+@andrew.cmu.edu (Samuel Antonio Minter)
Orga: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

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 just as the instruction book tells the
man what to do thus simulating a room which understands Chinese, the
laws telling how various atoms, electrons, energy fields, etc.
interact with each other "instruct" the matter and energy of the
human body how to simulate intelligent behavior.  Maybe even
understanding Chinese!  Is there an error in this argument that I'm
missing.
     If there isn't then it is a more powerful counter argument than
the agument "of course the man dosn't understand, but the whole room
does."

1988:11:19:05:19 SFT

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