About a 1984 rebuttal to Searle's Chinese Room argument about machine understanding.
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Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
Hacker News has set AI a lot of challenges over the years. Which ones has it met?
About a 1984 rebuttal to Searle's Chinese Room argument about machine understanding.
Votes cast 1–2 October 2026: 100,590 votes from 9,694 people.
While I agree that AI research has a long way to go (perhaps several decades) before it might produce responsible machines
...written in 1984. I do not believe we've made any progress in terms of creating "responsible machines."
My general feeling about the Chinese Room argument is that it discusses the "psychological phenomenon of understanding." We don't really know what that phenomenon is, it's a feeling or sensation from our perspective (or at least from mine) and so I'm uncomfortable ascribing much importance to it. Until we understand how our minds actually work, the "Turing test approach" makes sense to me: if we can't tell the difference, then it's "responsible."