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Originally Posted by whswhs
From the interaction of the brain cells, not one of which understands English by itself. And from the interaction of all the cells with my sense organs and the muscles of my vocal tract.
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The sense and motor parts are not properly integral to English comprehension; there needs to be some, but cases of people with impaired and missing senses and muscles reveal language can be conveyed invariantly through arbitrary input and output paths, and even taught without prior conventional exposure.
Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
Though I don't think the task that Searle describes the room as performing would count as "understanding Chinese" if a human being did it, either.
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Searle overlooks that a person can eventually learn Chinese from studying transcripts, consulting English reference books on Chinese, and practicing taking part in conversations, in fact that is how millions of non-natives learn it each year.