On Fri, 6 Feb 1998 Brent Allsop <allsop@swttools.fc.hp.com> Wrote:
>one thing is very obvious, red which we use to represent 700 nm
>light, and by the way is nothing like 700 nm light since it is in our
>brain
True, and equally true is the fact that the data in a computer's memory that
a photo cell has received a photon of 700 nm light is nothing like that light.
I don't know if that data is anything like my idea of red, and I don't know
if your red is the same as mine either.
>is certainly a lot more (and much more rich in meaning resulting in
>our greater intelligence) than some mere non unified abstract set of
>bits
All bits are abstract whether in a brain or a machine, and if computers
contained nothing but non unified set of bits they would produce only
gibberish. They don't.
>where it doesn't matter if these bits are represent by a man in a
>room reading kanji, holes in paper, or quantim bits in a quantum
>computer.
To exist information must be in a context, otherwise a hole in a paper tape
is not data it's just a hole, but there is nothing unique about the human
mind in that regard.
As for Searle's Chinese Room, it only proves one thing, a very small part of
a mechanism does not have all the attributes of the whole.
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
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