Fluid Mechanics

John Searle's Chinese Room argument has been criticised as an "absurd thought experiment that panders to false intuitions, and has done nothing but sidetrack philosophers for decades".

He asserted that computers may very well be able to emulate human thought in such a way that people will not be able to distinguish the two; but they will never be anything more than a counterfeit in this respect as it is beyond the talents of a human creator to invest a machine with semantic intelligence.

Over the last couple of days, the blogosphere has been buzzing with tales of 'wet computing', whereby researchers will aim to develop "information processing technology inspired by chemical processes in living systems".

On the face of it, this is really exciting news. It conjures up images of complex fluid neorological interplay and massive machine speed and efficiency working in perfect harmony.

Dr Maurits de Planque, a biochemist and spokesman for the project had said "Our system will copy some key features of neuronal pathways in the brain and will be capable of excitation, self-repair and self-assembly."

So far a very tantalising proposition. But it still doesn't give us any scope to belive that machine intelligence will transcend the Chinese Room... yet. In fact it seems to echo some of the oldest science fiction, namely Frankenstein, where a human's attempts to create life end up flawed... producing only a sum of many parts, composite as opposed to complete.

There may of course be problems associated with trying to build a new and improved model when the spec is based on an imperfect and very breakable, albeit wonderfully elaborate, source design.

It's likely that we will see this story repeat itself in different forms over the next years as we enter the age of replication, where syntax doggedly gains on semantics but does not yet have the capacity to make the next leap forward. There may indeed be many convincing replications in the near future and you may find yourself quick to declare that we are at the tipping point. Given our present position though, it might be wiser to accept this stage as intemediary... but very possibly antecedent to the escape from the Chinese Room.