Searle's arguments in relation to Artificial Intelligence purport to show that Artifical Intelligence is not possible.

Searle does not make a synthetic claim about what kinds of behaviour machines may be contrived to exhibit. He makes a claim about the meaning of the term "Intelligent".

This claim is supported by consideration of a thought experiment involving something which certainly never has and probably never will occur, and therefore upon which we can have no concrete evidence on how usage would in fact be adapted under these strange circumstances. From this thought experiment of doubful relevance are inferred claims about the meaning of the term "intelligent" which are flatly contradicted by common usage on a regular basis, viz that the term "intelligent" is not applicable to inanimate objects.

© created 1996/2/27 modified 1998/7/30