> Isn't this basically an argument over John Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment?
No, this debate is completely and utterly different from Searle's Chinese Room argument! Searle's argument is a philosophical one for the assertion that a computer could never be a person. He concludes that this is true even if we were to eventually believe that we completely understand intelligence in the manner than Chomsky is lobbying for, and then fully implement that understanding in a computer.
For Searle, no amount of understanding of intelligence in any form will ever let us make an intelligent computer. For Searle, intelligent beings must be made out of flesh and bone. Or at least not out of anything digital and computer-like.
No, this debate is completely and utterly different from Searle's Chinese Room argument! Searle's argument is a philosophical one for the assertion that a computer could never be a person. He concludes that this is true even if we were to eventually believe that we completely understand intelligence in the manner than Chomsky is lobbying for, and then fully implement that understanding in a computer.
For Searle, no amount of understanding of intelligence in any form will ever let us make an intelligent computer. For Searle, intelligent beings must be made out of flesh and bone. Or at least not out of anything digital and computer-like.