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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