From: kcalder@blueyonder.co.uk   
      
   In message , Omixochitl   
    writes   
   >Kevin Calder  wrote in news:zTI0xwF5EG7AFwF   
   >$@cableinet.co.uk:   
      
   >> For the same reason that the symbol shuffler in the Chinese room doesn't   
   >> understand the Chinese letters he is manipulating, despite that fact   
   >> that from the point of view of those outside the room he appears to be   
   >> able to converse fluently in Chinese.   
      
   >Hmm...so are we asking if the *shuffler* knows Chinese or if the *room*   
   >knows Chinese?  ;)   
      
   Searle doesn't think either understand Chinese.  Presumably the only   
   people who understand Chinese are the people outside of the room   
   entering the input symbols and reading the output symbols.  The shuffler   
   in the room, or the shuffler who has memorised the entire symbol   
   shuffling system and left the room, both only understand how to shuffle   
   symbols that have no meaning to them.  They do not understand Chinese.   
      
   >> Well, he is open to the idea that man made brains could possess   
   >> consciousness, provided they were brains, and not just simulations of   
   >> brains.   
      
   >If you think about it, all brains are man made brains anyway (babies -   
   >including their brains - come from bigger people instead of storks or   
   >cabbage patches, after all).  ;)   
      
   Lol.  Very true.  Searle does not object to stuff being man made.   
      
      
   Hrm... I'm begging to feel like I am Searle and that I'm talking in the   
   third person.   
      
   Can I have some more symbols please?   
   --   
   Kevin Calder   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)