03Oct 2025 by Post

John Searle (1932–2025): A Titan Passes

Baylor University, brain, ChatGPT, Chinese Room argument, computation, Computational Sciences, conscious states, Daniel Vanderveken, digestion, Discovery Institute Press, epistemic objectivity, Expression and Meaning, Foundations of Illocutionary Logic, John Searle, language, Minding the Brain, Neuroscience & Mind, ontic dualism, ontological idealism, ontology, philosophy, prose, qualitativeness, Science and Culture Today, scientism, Speech Acts, subjectivity, The Construction of Social Reality, The Nature of Nature, Unity, William Dembski
Searle’s most famous argument is undoubtedly the Chinese Room argument, first presented in his essay “Minds, Brains, and Programs” (1980). Source
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02Aug 2025 by Post

How Understanding Points Beyond Physicalism

algorithms, Aristotle, Artificial Intelligence, brain processes, Brown University, cognitive science, computational mechanics, computationalism, computer science, computers, Epistemology, humans, Intellect, James F. Ross, John McCarthy, John Searle, Life Sciences, mind, modus tollens, Neuroscience & Mind, Pat Flynn, philosophy, Roderick Chisholm, Selmer Bringsjord, Thomas Aquinas, triangularity
A computer science professor shows, using logic, how you must be more than mere matter. Source
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26Sep 2024 by Post

My Briar Patch: Notes of a Country Doctor 

Biologic Revolution, Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, briar patch, cancer, Daniel Witt, Francis Crick, geocentrism, heliocentrism, Intelligent Design, Jacques Monod, James Watson, John Searle, mechanistic consensus, Medicine, painting, piano, planets, René Descartes, science of purpose, scientific atheism, Stuart Kauffman, telos, The Song of the South, The Undying Soul, UC Berkeley, University of California at San Francisco
It took me about twenty years after medical school to break free of the intellectual "comfort" afforded by the mechanistic consensus. Source
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02Feb 2024 by Post

Artificial General Intelligence: Machines vs. Organisms

Accelerating Change Conference, algorithm, An Idol for Destruction (series), Are We Spiritual Machines?, artificial general intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, brain, ChatGPT, Chinese, Chinese Room argument, computers, consciousness, COSM, Culture & Ethics, endogenous activity, George Gilder, Gottfried Leibniz, Jay Richards, John Searle, John Smart, jumbo jet, machines, Marvin Minsky, Mastery (book), Michael Denton, Monadology, Moore’s law, Neuroscience & Mind, organisms, Ray Kurzweil, Robert Greene, Stanford University, Telecosm, The Age of Intelligent Machines, The Age of Spiritual Machines, Thomas Ray, Turing Machine, Venice
It may seem that I’m picking too much on Ray Kurzweil. But he and I have been crossing paths for a long time. Source
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10Jul 2023 by Post

Blind Ambition — Revisiting Searle’s Chinese Room

analytic philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Chinese, Chinese characters, Chinese Room, Clearasil, computers, English, intelligence, Intelligent Design, intentionality, Irish Sweepstakes, John Searle, judo, MacArthur Fellowship, Neuroscience & Mind, observer, Pepsi, psychology, Roger Schank, script, Sophia Loren, The Cognitive Computer, Yale University
For the most part, computer scientists have tended to ignore Searle’s argument and the point of view that it represents. Source
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