1. Reminder: Definition of Computation
Symbol system
Symbol shapes arbitrary
Symbol manipulations (algorithms) all syntactic (based on shape, not meaning)
Implementation-independent
Semantically interpretable (meaningful)

2. “Strong AI” (“Computationalism” or “Cognitivism”
“Mind is a computer program” (I.e., cognition is computation)
“Brain is Irrelevant” (I.e., computation is implementation-independent)
Turing Test is Decisive (I.e., the T2-passing symbol system has a mind)

3. Chinese Room Argument
Suppose SS is the T2-passing symbol system (passes in Chinese, so has a mind, understands Chinese)
Because computation is implementation-independent, every implementation of SS understands Chinese
Searle implements SS -- but fails to understand Chinese

4. What went wrong?
System Reply: “Searle doesn’t understand, the system does” (but Searle is the system!)
Turing Test is at fault (T2 perhaps, but T3?)
Symbol Grounding Problem (symbols and T2 are not enough: symbol meanings must be grounded via T3

5. The Symbol Grounding Problem
Chinese/Chinese Dictionary-Go-Round
Grounding symbols in T3 (robotic) capacity
Neural nets and other nonsymbolic (analog, dynamic) functions
Hybrid symbolic/nonsymbolic systems
Categorical Perception (sensorimotor “toil”
Dictionary Grounding (symbolic “theft”)

6. Dennett on Robotics and Reverse-Engineering
Dennett is a behaviourist/instrumentalist
For him, mental capacities are just behavioural capacities
Hence TT capacity = mind
Reverse-engineering the mind is reverse-engineering its behavioural capacities
Robotics is the way to design and test theories of mind

7. Critiques of connectionism
Cognition may not be just computation, but is it just connectionism either?
Pinker/Prince’s critique of Perceptron past-tense learning
Pylyshyn/Fodor’s critique of “systematicity”

8. Chalmers on Computation
What is computation for Chalmers?
“Reconfiguring hardware” via software
What can be reconfigured into what, via software?
Can a computer be reconfigured into a plane?
Why should thinking (cognition) differ from flying?