Answer by Roddus for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
OK for Phil-132, I'm not sure I understand all the points, but this is what I think's going on in the Chinese Room. There are two separate symbol-processing systems: (1) the system that processes the...
View ArticleAnswer by Phil_132 for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
As you say, the difference between extrinsic (observer-based) and intrinsic (subjective) symbol-manipulation semantics is key to the Chinese Room argument (CRA) (cf. the symbol grounding...
View ArticleAnswer by Roddus for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
Thanks John. When you say:1. SYMBOLS. "...for concreteness, let's please do away with this unnecessarily vague "voltage level" terminology, which you've used here and in preceding comments above. See,...
View ArticleAnswer by Guill for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
To obtain an answer, one must first make a distinction between a "computer" and its underlying "implementation." Let me use two examples to make this clear."Computer""Implementation"IBM 370...
View ArticleAnswer by user19423 for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
Yes, he (correctly) means "a formal-symbol manipulating device". But "manipulation" needs a little clarification. The usual textbook formalism is given by the lambda calculus, e.g.,...
View ArticleAnswer by Dan Bradbury for Does it make sense to define a computer as a...
I believe that Searle, like almost everyone in computing agrees fully with Turing's definition of mechanical computation. By "computer" Searle is speaking to any mechanical computational device (think...
View ArticleDoes it make sense to define a computer as a symbol-manipulating device?
Searle (John Searle (1997), The Mystery of Consciousness, p9) says “A computer is by definition a device that manipulates formal symbols”. What does he mean? How do you define a piece of electronic...
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