Re: No More Searle Please

From: micah glasser (micahglasser@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Jan 18 2006 - 21:40:12 MST


See this paper <http://www.kurzweiltech.com/Searle/searle_response_3.htm> to
read Ray Kurzweil destroy Searle's ridiculous argument. This is my favourite
argument from Ray - it should be standard reading for any philosophy of mind
or AI class. I recommend reading it as it is quite short.

On 1/18/06, Daniel Radetsky <daniel@radray.us> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 08:09:43 -0500
> Richard Loosemore <rpwl@lightlink.com> wrote:
>
> > END OF ARGUMENT.
>
> If you don't want to talk about Searle, don't talk about Searle, but don't
> give
> a set of reasons why not to talk about Searle, and expect me not to
> respond.
>
> > He proposed a computational system implemented on top of another
> > computational system (Chinese understander implemented on top of English
> > understander). This is a mind-on-top-of-mind case that has no relevance
> > whatsoever to either (a) human minds, or (b) an AI implemented on a
> > computer.
>
> This is a version of a response made a long time ago by Jerry Fodor.
> Searle
> responded, and very adequately I think. Since the mind-on-top-of-mind is
> something which is implementing a Turing machine, it is the same thing
> computation-wise as anything else implementing a Turing machine. So it is
> completely relevant to whether or not a computer (something implementing a
> Turing Machine) can be conscious.
>
> I'll be blunt: if you want to challenge Searle, use the Systems Reply.
> It's the
> only reply that actually works, since it explicitly disagrees with
> Searle's
> fundamental premise (consciousness is a causal, not a formal, process).
> You
> went on to make something like the Systems Reply in the rest of your post,
> but
> against a straw man. Searle never claims that since 'understanding doesn't
> bleed
> through,' Strong AI is false. He claims (in the original article; I
> haven't read
> everything on this subject) that no additional understanding is created
> anywhere, in the room or in the man, and so Strong AI is false. That is,
> the
> fact that 'understanding doesn't bleed through' is only a piece of the
> puzzle.
>
> Daniel
>

--
I swear upon the alter of God, eternal hostility to every form of tyranny
over the mind of man. - Thomas Jefferson


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