The famous Chinese Room thought experiment - John Searle (1980)

Video Description

I am writing a book! If you want to know when it is ready (and maybe win a free copy), submit your email on my website: https://www.jeffreykaplan.org/ I won’t spam you or share your email address with anyone. Dualism: https://youtu.be/P3pmVf3Gs70 Behaviorism: https://youtu.be/k715B-2t-YU Identity Theory: https://youtu.be/zO0slzSuxpI Functionalism: https://youtu.be/rd8sITBnijg This is a video lecture about "Can Computers Think?" by John Searle. In this paper, Searle argues again a form of functionalism, which he calls "Strong AI". The argument rests on a thought experiment having to do with a non-Chinese speaker who is locked in a room with a lookup table, receiving inputs and providing outputs all in Chinese. Searle claims that syntax is never sufficient for semantics, and that digital computer only ever deal with syntax, so they therefore can never understand the meaning of a language. This is part of an introductory philosophy course.