John Searle’s famous “Chinese Room” argument that was discussed in Chapter 2 of How the Mind Works, was one of the most interesting arguments to display claims of artificial intelligence. Basically the claim as that computers can and will at least try to master the act of thinking. The argument was based upon how Searle sees himself in a room alone and is trying to follow and get on board with a computer that is that is responding to Chinese characters. However, Searle knows he is not able to grasp or understand any of it, yet he attempts to manipulate numbers and a variety of symbols in order to trick those outside of the room. His manipulation of such numbers and symbols, produces Chinese characters, which allows him to convince those outside the room that there is someone who can actually speak Chinese inside the room. Searle believes that though the computer appears to understand what is going on, in all reality it actually doesn’t understand it. It can be concluded that purpose of this argument was the refute the point that a computer can function on its own. Searle believes that if a man cannot understand Chinese even when he was manipulating numbers and symbols, then neither can computers. A computer is no human and can never be like one.
Pinker’s response to the “Chinese room” argument is reluctant. He says that Searle has stated nothing to do with something that can be scientifically valuable. And that Searle is merely stating about the word “understand”. In fact, it is talked about in abroad way, which isn’t too clear or concise. Pinker says that humans are filled with meat, while computers are filled with information. Humans need the right buttons to be pushed before he/she can accurately process information. Similarly, computers need the right information when processing in search for other information. Both need some sort of push in order to be successful and without that push humans and computers both cannot function and “understand”. Pinker feels that we can be just as unreliable as computers can be.
The 3 senses of the notion of “consciousness” that Pinker discusses in Chapter 2 of How the Mind Works are self-knowledge, access-consciousness, and sentience.
Pinker is a cognitive psychologist. Therefore, it is only fair to say he believes in cognitive science and that cognitive science is proving to be very successful in all fields. Pinker view is that cognitive science can thoroughly understand acesss-conciousness. Basically, he thinks of it as a system; one that can successfully process information while limiting the access of information given for each specific task. Each task will perform its own job and carry out its duties, while serving as a helping hand to other tasks. This means a little bit of information will be shared with others in order to run efficiently. But, the information that is being shared must be relevant to the task at hand. Nonetheless, when intelligence comes to the table, all parts and tasks of the brain need to be grouped as a whole. This whole will serve as one huge taskforce in order to create a game plan and establish the action that will be taken. These tasks that consist of tiny breadcrumbs of information, which is relevant and that will serve as this force make up what is called our individual conscious life. Pinker establishes four functions that make up this operating system which are restriction of sensory information, the spotlight of attention, emotions, and the will. All the information is processed through these senses. For example, we hear words, but not phonemes when people are talking. Additionally, the system is capable of directing attention from one thing to the next in regards to our senses. Furthermore, emotions serve as a huge role in when creating a game plan or strategy. Our emotions stir the direction in which our attention flows. For example, you are in an car crash and you hear your baby sister cry for help. The cry for help from a loved one is the focus of one’s attention. And lastly, our will is what displays our manpower to go through with the action. It is what unleashes the handcuffs before we act.
Pinker’s views on “consciousness” in the sense of sentience are sentience is how things feel. What he means by that is how things feel in perspective when a challenge arises and one is faced with obstacles. This is part that represents the unknown within the mind. It is like what the mind would like to do or be. When one eats something like a donut and get this tasty feeling, this could be our neurons becoming activated. That experience is known as qualia. Quale shows us how the mind functions and works in mysterious ways.
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