eliot@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Eliot Handelman) (01/08/90)
Searle gets some characters, looks em up and it says, "Tear this page out of the rulebook and set it on fire." This rule is executed for side effects only: Searle does it and sends out a slip of paper that says "nil" in Chinese. Next, the investigators send Searle the characters that lead to the page with the rule about tearing out the page and setting it on fire. Uh oh, Searle can't find the rule! He flunks the Turing Test. Maybe the investigators don't know about the rulebook, sp they can't get at it. So they ask Searle, "what's your favorite color?" Searle says, "I like blue." They say, "from now on, whenever asked about your favorite color, answer heliotrope." Searle says OK. They send him the same question. He reads the same rule, flunks the test. New rule book has rules with little slots that indicate time sensitivity. When instructed to answer heliotrope, S. puts little peg in slot, somehow figures out correct response. Now researchers say, was your favorite color ever blue? Searle: "Yes." Researcher: "Ok, now your favorite color is blue." Searle looks up this sentence, it says that as a side effect, in case Searle's favorite color at some time was not blue, then the rule about adding the augmented rule peg must have been read, in which case go to that rule and remove the peg (or maybe add a cancelled rule cancellation peg, so as to remember that at one time Searle's favorite color was actually heliotrope). Trouble is, Searle has no idea that colors are even being discussed, so in order to pass the TT there must be a rule for deciding what to do in case Searle's favorite colors were changing. The rulebook must have then forseen the possibility that the color would be changed back, so the rule about what to do when the augmented peg rule was marked must have taken the precaution that that rule might also be affected. By extension, any change in any rule that could affect any other rule would have to be adjusted. One minor change might propogate through a zillion rules. Searle is immortal and the book is infinite. Searle doesn't understand, but all understanding has been encapsulated in immortal Searle plus infinite rules Immortal Searle both understands and does not understands, because he is god.