Xref: utzoo comp.ai:4778 sci.lang:5245 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!bcsaic!rwojcik From: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik) Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.lang Subject: Re: What's the Chinese room problem? Message-ID: <15157@bcsaic.UUCP> Date: 24 Sep 89 00:19:32 GMT References: <235@cerc.wvu.wvnet.edu.edu> <567@ariel.unm.edu> Reply-To: rwojcik@bcsaic.UUCP (Rick Wojcik) Organization: Boeing Computer Services AI Center, Seattle Lines: 32 In article <567@ariel.unm.edu> bill@wayback.unm.edu (william horne) writes: >This example is relavant to AI, because it questions the validity of the >Turing Test as a test of "understanding", as well as questioning the >legitimacy of rule based systems as models of intelligence. One serious flaw in the Chinese Room Problem is that it relies on the so-called 'conduit metaphor' (originally described by Michael Reddy in A. Ortony's _Metaphor_and_Thought_ Cambridge U. Press 1979). That metaphor assumes that meaning is essentially contained in the linguistic expression. A logical consequence of this belief is that one can devise a set of principles for translating from one language into another without losing any of the semantic 'stuff' that a linguistic expression conveys. The conduit metaphor is very powerful and useful as a means of illuminating the behavior of language, but, like all analogies, it breaks down. Those who deal with real language to language translation know that there is no one-to-one match between expressions in one language and those in another. An alternative view of linguistic communication is to assume that linguistic expressions merely help to shape the flow of mental pictures (alas, another metaphor :-) that constitute the end product of communication. Therefore, there is no necessary one-to-one correspondence between linguistic expressions in one language and those in another. The trick to translation is to construct expressions in the target language that evoke the same thoughts as those in the source language. And this may even be impossible without modification of the target language (i.e. the creation of new words to fit new experiences). So I claim that the Chinese room problem rests on incorrect assumptions about the nature of language and understanding. -- Rick Wojcik csnet: rwojcik@atc.boeing.com uucp: uw-beaver!bcsaic!rwojcik