A Fair Version of the Chinese Room

Creative Commons License

Cagatay H.

PROBLEMOS, vol.96, pp.121-133, 2019 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 96
  • Publication Date: 2019
  • Doi Number: 10.15388/problemos.96.10
  • Journal Name: PROBLEMOS
  • Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Philosopher's Index, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Page Numbers: pp.121-133
  • Keywords: Artificial intelligence, Chinese room, Turing test, understanding, pattern recognition
  • Ankara University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

By the Chinese room thought experiment, John Searle (1980) advocates the thesis that it is impossible for computers to think in the same way that human beings do. This article intends firstly to show that the Chinese room does not justify or even test this thesis and secondly to describe exactly how the person in the Chinese room can learn Chinese. Regarding this learning process, Searle ignores the relevance of an individual's pattern recognition capacity for understanding. To counter Searle's claim, this paper, via examining a series of thought experiments inspired by the Chinese room, aims to underline the importance of pattern recognition for understanding to emerge.