The Chinese Room - 60-Second Adventures in Thought (3/6)

An argument against computers ever being truly intelligent.

(Part 3 of 6)

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[BigyanChap]

I am flabbergasted someone can explain it so well in 1 minute 15 seconds.

[TheRealAfroRick]

That was FANTASTICALLY well explained for 60 seconds!

[jacng]

read so many complex explanations on the chinese room and still didn't understand, until i watched this simple 1 minute video! Thank you for making this so easy to comprehend

[Superdingo]

I've always thought about it like this: the man clearly isn't intelligent (fluent in Chinese), but the system as a whole is. The man doesn't need to understand Chinese or even to think, he only conveys the input and the output. Are our the cells linking our brain, ears, and mouth intelligent? No, but together they form an intelligent system. Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, but I think this experiment is essentially analogous to how our brain accesses and processes information.

[AmpsforBuddha]

I'm enjoying that there are great comments here, with actual conversations.

[certaintranquility]

The definition of 'intelligence' is the connection between experience and information, while 'computation' is the processing of information to create better conclusions. So no, computers aren't intelligent, but the are much better computers then we are are intelligent, hence the origin of the name.

[joaodecarvalho]

Steven Pinker's answer to the Chinese Room is that Searle is Just taking a process that, in the human brain, happens very fast (understanding) and slowing it down to a point that it looks something else.

[charlescrack]

I just realised that video was practically ex machina's ending. Human locked in and a robot with Chinese skin gets away

[TheDapperDragon]

The problem with the Chinese Room thought is that, at some point, the human will begin recognizing repeating characters, symbols, and not need to consult the book.

At the point, the person has learned.

[Xzalander]

Personally, my logic is that a computer can only ever know what -we- already know. In the event it finds something we do not know, it will not be able to articulate what it was, requiring us to know about it first to articulate it for it.

[TheLivingHeiromartyr]

Firstly, please note that the following argument is hypothetical. The use of 'if' and 'then' do not imply my belief that the condition and predicate will come to pass.
If a computer becomes truly intelligent, then how will it prove its intelligence to us? Firstly, if it thinks, then why should it think like we do? Secondly, any attempt it makes at genuine reasoning can easily be written off as preprogrammed.
If a computer gains conciousness, its biggest challenge will be proving itself.

[olebiscuitbarrel]

that made a tremendous amount of sense to me, actually. thanks for the new perspective!

[splitpitch]

A computer processes data like we do, and the chinese room does, by translating it into symbols.Do you think there is a cat in your head when you think of a cat? There is just the mentalese symbols for 'cat'. No, computers do not think like humans- no emotions, no instincts, no fears. Their 'thoughts' are automated instructions with no manual self controlled override (which we have) but more of our thoughts are automatic instructions than you would think.

[whoamInonsense]

Human intelligence is also doing permutations and combinations on the saved instructions in our memory, finding out mostly matching patterns that are being loaded in our memory through the course of life .Human's superiority lies in imagination and intuition which is beyond just mere intelligence.

[nvtmxoj]

this was a great explanation, helped me a lot for the philosophy final

[CadetGriffin]

Too bad Alan Turing didn't get to see any of our Furbies.

[arcdia]

The memory and computation are in the book.
The qualia is in the human.
Intelligence is when the input into a system is satisfied by the system's output.

[MinoruGLS]

So basically this is like "If a robot girl loves you but that love is part of her program, do you accept it?" Surely that love isn't what people usually consider as "real love", but then it is up to you to decide what "real love" actually is. If a love" is a lie, then what do you prefer? A beautiful lie or perhaps a painful truth?

[e.e.mccutcheon]

If you take it a step further, you could say that humans only take the information given to them by their senses (the prompts provided by the chinese individual on the outside of the door) and subconsciously figure out how to react to that stimuli by comparing it against their memories and knowledge (the reference materials used by the subject inside the room)

[Flight_of_Icarus]

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."

That's the question here. Is a robot's mind filled or kindled?