Quite clearly the Chinese Room's instruction manual (whether a computer programme or a lookup table) is of finite size under most reasonable assumptions, while the UD should have an infinite output. So the CR is indeed not nearly as big as the UD.
On 9 May 2015 at 12:52, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, May 08, 2015 at 01:26:38PM -0700, meekerdb wrote: > > > > But I'm interested in Russell's argument that the Chinese Room would > > have to be so big as to be absurd. ISTM it's not nearly as big as > > the UD. Is there some principle that rules out things that are to > > big or to improbable? > > > > I always assumed that the CR absurdity worked because the "little man" > inside the room just looked responses up in a book. Clearly, if its a > lookup table like this, then the book would be absurdly ginormous. But > if the book contained, say a printout of an AI program in C, then > indeed it wouldn't be so large. But then the book has rather complex > contents, it is not so absurd to think that following its instructions > could not instantiate a consciousness, which I think Searle was trying > to get us to admit. > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] > University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
