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From: rlr@pyuxd.UUCP (Rich Rosen)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Chinese Room understandings
Message-ID: <2055@pyuxd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Nov-85 18:43:00 EST
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Posted: Wed Nov  6 18:43:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 03:47:19 EST
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> Let us suppose David Canzi's Chinese Brain man (the one who has memorized
> the rules) gets a headache.  How can he ask for an aspirin?  Back in the
> Chinese Room, he could not.  But let us suppose he has additional rules
> which allow him to put in requests.  Isn't it clear that he is thus
> essentially in the position of a man with a Chinese-Blanklish dictionary?
>  [WINGATE]

It's amazing some of the analogies that come out of this discussion on the
Chinese Room examples, and though this sounds sarcastic I don't mean it that
way.  If we are analogizing between the "Chinese Room" and the brain (trying
to reform the former so that it is more like the latter, which is exactly
what Charley is doing), what IS the ability of the man to request aspirin?
Is it not analogous to one receptive section of the brain working in tandem
with the rest of the brain, sending a message (endocrine or otherwise) to
another (the "I/O" or motor control section)?  Is it not the very addition
of these sorts of things that make the Chinese Room example more closely
resembling of the human brain?  I think this discussion is a more useful
exercise in thinking that it might seem at first glance.
--