[ExI] Wernicke's aphasia and the CRA.

[Gordon Swobe]

Stathis (and Lee),

> In the CR a thinking entity supervenes on the behaviour of another
> thinking entity, the man in the room

No. The "internalization" in the rejoinder to the systems reply to the CRA refers only to the internalization by the man of the program and I/O ports. Instead of a physical rule-book on a bookshelf, he has a memorized look up table. Instead of slot in the door through which he receives inputs and sends outputs, he has his own ears and mouth. The internalization thus does not refer to the internalization of any other "thinking entity".

Searle's systems reply critics had argued (with perfect logic, even if they missed the point) that while the man inside lacks understanding, it does not follow that the room also lacks understanding. After all the man inside is not the subject that passes the Turing test. The room is!

So Searle replied, "Well then forget about the Chinese room and all its trappings (I only put that stuff there to help you visualize what's going on) and let the Englishman inside memorize the program. He then steps outside the room and takes the TT in Chinese. He passes it, yet he still does not understand Chinese."

-gts


--- On Sun, 12/13/09, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Wernicke's aphasia and the CRA.
> To: "ExI chat list" <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Date: Sunday, December 13, 2009, 3:06 AM
> 2009/12/13 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:
> 
> > By hypothesis, then the original "man" doesn't know a
> bit about
> > what is being said, only the new "internalization" you
> speak of?
> > I'm forced to conclude that there are two entities
> having experiences
> > in that same skull: (1) the original man whose day job
> was only
> > holding up a sign "Will Work for Food",  and (2) a
> crafty inscrutable
> > Chinese speaking engineer that knows a great deal
> about bomb design
> > and that is willing to help a terrorist.
> 
> That's how it is. In a normal brain a thinking entity
> supervenes on
> the behaviour of non-thinking entities, the neurons. In the
> CR a
> thinking entity supervenes on the behaviour of another
> thinking
> entity, the man in the room. There's no reason why
> *adding*
> consciousness at the lower level should eliminate it at the
> higher
> level.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Stathis Papaioannou
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