Chinese Room Argument Searle

Philosopher john searle formulated the chinese room argument to discredit the idea that a computer can be programmed with the appropriate functions to behave the same way a human mind would.

Chinese room argument searle. It is one of the best known and widely credited counters to claims of artificial intelligence ai that is to claims that computers do or at least can someday might think. The chinese room argument was introduced in searle s 1980 paper minds brains and programs published in behavioral and brain sciences. Searle asks you to imagine the following scenario. The argument asks the reader to imagine a computer that is programmed to understand how to read and communicate in chinese.

In 1980 john searle published minds brains and programs in the journal the behavioral and brain sciences. According to searle s original presentation the argument is based on two key claims. He calls his argument the chinese room argument note. The chinese room argument is a thought experiment of john searle 1980a and associated 1984 derivation.

It eventually became the journal s most influential target article 1 generating an enormous number of commentaries and responses in the ensuing decades and searle has continued to defend and refine the. There is a room. Searle actually believes that his argument works against non classical computers as well but it is best to start with the digital computers with which we are all most familiar the chinese room.