Homework #3: Chinese Room

For this paper we were assigned to read, it asked a question that I believe won't be answered for a very long time. John Searle talked about a situation that involved a Chinese Room. This room was an experiment to help elaborate on the question on if AI can really understand translation if it were able to translate something as if a human would. If a computer could replicate everything a human could and produce the same or even better output, would it still be considered as being understood if it is just doing what it told? The computer in this case would just be translating symbols and matching questions with the appropriate response.

I think in this scenario, this is not understanding the material. I think it goes deeper than this simple experiment and understanding means being able to 'understand' or actually know what it means in depth. In a way, maybe a little emotionally involved in it.

I've heard a lot of other students in the debate in lecture today say that the question isn't important and that as long as it does what it's told, it doesn't matter. I in fact believe this to be false. I do believe that one day, computers will be able to replicate human thought process and possibly be able to take thought processes further than humans would. This is something that I believe won't happen for a very long time, but I believe it will eventually take place. If anything, the computers would design their own algorithm and 'learn' just as an infant would. In this case, there would be an issue of computer thinking being limited by their hardware, just as I believe humans are in a short way. I think it's an important concept to think about and will be very important in the future. Ideally, humans and machines would eventually become integrated in a way that the line is hard to see. Much like races started out as and how segregation is becoming a thing of the past.

In short, I liked the concept, but didn't like the article. I think he was too emotionally involved and not open to the bigger picture. There is no one answer to this question and I believe everyone's answer is their own correct answer. In the end though, I believe the machines will be the ones who have the final decision in this issue, not us.