Histórico e Conceitos Básicos
A SALA CHINESA, John Searle (1980)
The complete scenario has Searle in a room into which Chinese symbols are passed on pieces of paper. He follows the English instructions (which reference the Chinese symbols by their appearance, e.g. such and such squiggle) and eventually passes out some other Chinese symbols. To native Chinese speakers on the outside, Searle and his box mimic the functionality of Schank's
program: the box answers questions about the story. Searle's point is, however, that as he slaves away in the box following instructions and shuffling bits of paper marked with odd symbols, he has no understanding of Chinese, of the stories, of the questions, or of the answers. Since Searle is the instantiation of the computer program in this case, it shows us how other instantiations, such as the program executing on a computer, must lack the same understanding of Chinese and of the stories as he does.