From: sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com (Steven J. Edwards)
Subject: A slightly fraudulent Chinese Room
Reply-To: sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com
Organization: Bull HN, Worldwide Information Systems, Billerica, Mass., USA
Distribution: comp
Date: 10 Apr 92 17:53:45

	A scenario about a somewhat fraudulent Chinese Room:

	The time is A Few Years From Now, that time when all of the
trivial CS problems of today are solved.  It is a time easily foreseen
even if the forthcoming trivial solutions are elusive.  For our
purposes, it is the time when Chinese Language Manipulation computer
programs have just become feasible.

	The place is a large demonstration area at Big Name University.
The set is dominated by a room sized box with opaque walls.  One wall
has a large banner proclaiming "World's First Chinese Language
Manipulation Computer".  Below the banner are two small slots; one is
labeled with the Chinese ideograph for "In" and the other has the
ideograph for "Out".

	There are two professors in front of the box.  The first is a
Skeptic and the second is a Believer.  The Skeptic is convinced that
syntax does not imply semantics while the Believer thinks that Strong
AI is possible and that computers can comprehend and think as well as
humans.

	The Skeptic and the Believer happen to both have a reasonable
Chinese language proficiency and have spent some time testing the box.
Chinese language questions are submitted and correct Chinese language
responses are received.

Believer: "Well, friend, it looks like this box is doing a great job
handling Chinese.  It undoubtably has power of understanding and is
capable of responding to its environment."

Skeptic: "Not so fast, pal.  Its behavior is no different from what
could be expected from a large but easily reducible symbol
manipulation scheme as described by Searle.  It could be nothing more
than mere syntax."

Believer: "Ah, you have no appreciation for Strong AI.  Although I
have not seen inside the box, the Cuspy Programming Group here at BNU
assures me that there is a novel algorithm realized inside the box
that allows full power of human comprehension."

Skeptic: "Bah!  How can I have an appreciation for something that
doesn't exist?  Besides, the CPG students are just a bunch of beer
swilling, pizza fattened sluggards that cause me to doubt the ability
of the Admissions Staff here at our wonderful BNU."

Believer: "Why, you little <untranslatable Chinese epithet>!  You know
nothing of programming, so what gives you standing to criticize?"

Skeptic: "I may know little of programming, but I know how to use a
fire axe!"

	At this point the Skeptic grabs a fire safety axe and hacks
into the front wall of the box.  A large, growing crack results.  The
crack envelops the box which in turn crumbles to debris.

	After the dust settles, both professors are startled to see a
figure seated at a table in the middle of the debris.  On top of the
table are paper carrying tubes that were formerly connected to the
slots on the front of the box.  In addition to the tubes, there is a
supply of blank paper, a pen, and a largish book labeled: "Super-Duper
Chinese Question Answering by Cliffs Notes".  The seated figure is a
slightly larger than human Robot done in 1950s SF style complete with
a sparking Jacob's ladder, numerous HV electrodes, accordion pleated
joints, and a small spinning head-mounted parabolic antenna.

Skeptic: "Ah, ha!  See, I was right all along.  This fraud obviously
has no power of comprehension.  All of its 'understanding' is no more
than mere symbol manipulation wholly contained in crib notes.  I have
proven by demonstration that there is absolutely no Strong AI here.
Just wait until I tell your tenure review board about your
gullibility."

	The Skeptic, nose high in the air, triumphantly struts away
and exits the demonstration area.  The Believer remains, but soon
starts talking to herself.

Believer: "Golly, I guess the Skeptic was right and I was fooled.
I'll never again listen to those fibbers in the Cuspy Programming
Group."

	As the Believer turns to leave, a slight noise is heard from
the Robot.  The Believer turns to face the Robot and is somewhat
startled when the Robot opens its outer surface to reveal that it
isn't a Robot at all!  It's really a member of the CPG complete with
the usual pizza stain stigmata on the front of his tattered IHTFP
sweatshirt.  After a final squirm, he escapes from the tinfoil
disguise and addresses the Believer.

Sluggard: "Sorry to fool you people, but I needed a project for my
Abnormal Psychology class, and it turns out that I was correct in
guessing that this Chinese Room would get enough raw observations.  By
the way, you made a slight pronunciation error with <untranslatable
Chinese epithet>, but it's not important."

Believer: "Maybe the fooling was of double order; if that crib book is
as fake as as your tinfoil costume, then the Skeptic was indeed
fooled.  I see it now: the Skeptic was certain beyond all doubt that
there was no comprehension here, yet he was and is wrong on this count
as you are Chinese language proficient yourself.  It's obvious now
that the Skeptic's argument is totally irrelevant."

Sluggard: "Alas, your assumption about the crib book is not entirely
true.  There is indeed some relevant information in the book, and I
did consult it on occasion.  It turns out that I can only handle X
percent of the Chinese language questions unaided while I must rely on
the crib book for the remaining (100 - X) percent."

Believer: "Now that I look in the crib book, I can see that it is not
large enough to handle all the questions itself.  Perhaps we can say
that it has partial (100 - X percent) understanding."

Sluggard: "Yes; the Skeptic is wrong because of the assumption that
comprehension is an all or nothing affair.  We've demonstrated that
this is false because we can construct many different crib books, each
with a complementary Sluggard.  By varying the quantity X we can shift
the power of comprehension in a continuous manner from Sluggard to
book."

Believer: "Thus we can construct a range of different Chinese Rooms,
each with the same external behavior.  Yet each is different
internally, and there is no Room that has any more or less
comprehensive power than another.  There is no Room, except at the
endpoints of the range, where a Skeptic can say 'See, syntax only, so
no comprehension and no Strong AI' or say 'See, a real Chinese
proficient human, therefore no machinery involved.'  Because of the
false dichotomy, Chinese Rooms are really of no help in deciding that
Strong AI is either possible or impossible."

Sluggard: "Even after a Skeptic chops away the fake front wall, it is
still impossible to determine exactly where the comprehensive power
exists.  We could, given enough plywood and tinfoil, create a
sufficiently nested regression of Rooms and Robots so that any finite
chopping would not lead to a provable solution."

Believer: "You have restored my confidence somewhat, although it is
shakier than before.  I see now that the syntax only Skeptics cannot
disprove with their Rooms, but it is also still required of Believers
that we demonstrate Strong AI.  It appears that Rooms aren't that
helpful to us either."

 [The above opinions expressed are my own; not necessarily held by others.]
      == Steven J. Edwards           Bull HN Information Systems Inc. ==
      == (508) 294-3484              300 Concord Road         MS 820A ==
      == sje@xylos.ma30.bull.com     Billerica, MA 01821          USA ==
"That Government which Governs the Least, Governs Best." -- Thomas Jefferson
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy