Paper Reading #0 On Computers

If one carries out an intelligent conversation using pieces of paper that is slid under a door, would this mean that someone or something understands what you are trying to say? A thought experiment carried out by John Searle has asked this question in response to a possible interaction between a human and a computer. Although it is easy to say yes when holding a conversation with a person face it face, it can become much more difficult to reply in the same fashion if it is a communication that is done in a fashion that was mentioned previously. It is important to note that this fashion of communication done through a computer does not imply that the computer understands you. This is due to the fact that response are not based on the understanding but rather a set of instructions that it would gloss over to find a response that would emulate a human like response to a certain question. This would ultimately mean that a computer is not taught what something is or means but is rather bound by a set of rules to spit out something when encountered with a certain situation.

It is important to note that in terms of the end result, the question itself is pointless and does not matter due to the fact that the conversation would have the same human like conversation whether it was a computer (assuming the computer has strong AI) or a real person. However for the sake of answering the question directly, it would be a definite no. This is because when a response is given to a computer, the thinking done is not actually understanding the meanings of the list of words in the sentence itself but rather looking through a set of predefined instructions. The computer is merely following a list of rules that is concretely enforced by a pre-made program. Although many will not be able to tell the difference when talking it is merely an illusion none the less. 

Another important point to note concerning this problem is the fact that people in many cases respond to questions due to the emotions they may feel. And in such a case a human being would feel emotional to certain questions because they truly understand the meaning behind such a question. In this case the computer would respond in a humanly fashion not because the computer also feels emotion in the same fashion a human being would but rather due to its strong logic that accounts in emotion ahead of time. For example if would was to describe a sad or unfortunate scenario, the response that would come from the other side may be sympathetic not because it feels and sympathizes with its partner's plight but rather due to the fact that its logic accounts for such a response.  

Although it is undeniable that theoretically a strong AI can create a situation where it may emulate a human being. It is very much so that a computer does not understand what we may have to say not based on the results but based on the process the computer goes through in order to respond.