I’m just sick to death of John Searle’s forty-year-long refusal to understand computers. That prick thinks you can yank out your CPU to interrogate it, and if it doesn’t know what a web browser is, it cannot possibly have rendered this webpage. It’s the software, stupid. Software does the work. This was what Church & Turing were on about, back in nineteen-thirty-fuck-you.
If your grand thought experiment begins with demonstrable understanding of Chinese, in a room containing a book and a dude, and it’s not the dude - understanding still occurred. There’s a Chinese guy outside the room, and as surely as if the room contained a second Chinese guy, the system within the room understands Chinese. But there’s just Jim and a book. Either Jim or the book understand Chinese… and it’s not Jim. Take all the time you need.
Amazing analysis. Your comment was fun to read!
I’m just sick to death of John Searle’s forty-year-long refusal to understand computers. That prick thinks you can yank out your CPU to interrogate it, and if it doesn’t know what a web browser is, it cannot possibly have rendered this webpage. It’s the software, stupid. Software does the work. This was what Church & Turing were on about, back in nineteen-thirty-fuck-you.
If your grand thought experiment begins with demonstrable understanding of Chinese, in a room containing a book and a dude, and it’s not the dude - understanding still occurred. There’s a Chinese guy outside the room, and as surely as if the room contained a second Chinese guy, the system within the room understands Chinese. But there’s just Jim and a book. Either Jim or the book understand Chinese… and it’s not Jim. Take all the time you need.