Searle rejects Functionalism about the mind. Computers can teach us useful things about minds and brains, but they do not have minds. They can simulate mental activity, but not duplicate it. Searle's Argument Premise 1. Computer programs are formal or syntactic .
Human minds have mental contents or semantics .
Syntax by itself is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics. Computer programs are neither constitutive of nor sufficient for mind. Imagine that you understand absolutely no Chinese, but are locked in a room and given a set of English instructions for manipulating strings of Chinese characters. Using the instructions you have been given, you take strings of Chinese characters which are slipped to you under the door and produce a new string of Chinese characters which you slip under the door to those waiting outside. The scale of Searle's example is misleading.