On J. Searle’s “Chinese Room” from the Hybrid Model of the Artificial Cognitive Agents Design

Abstract

The article presents a review of the phenomenon of understanding the meaning of the natural language and, more broadly, the meaning of the situation in which the cognitive agent is located, considering the context. A specific definition of understanding is given, which is at the intersection of neurophysiology, information theory and cybernetics. The scheme of an abstract architecture of the cognitive agent (of arbitrary nature) is offered, which states that an agent with such architecture can understand in the sense described in the paper. It also provides a critique of J. Searle’s mental experiment “The Chinese Room” from the point of view of the construction of artificial cognitive agents within a hybrid paradigm of artificial intelligence. The novelty of the presented work is based on the application of the author’s methodological approach to the construction of artificial cognitive agents. It not only considers the perception of external stimuli from the environment, but also the philosophical problem of “understanding” by the artificial cognitive agent of its sensory inputs. The relevance of the work follows from the renewed interest of the scientific community in the theme of Strong Artificial Intelligence (or AGI). The author's contribution consists in comprehensive treatment from different points of view of the theme of understanding perceived by artificial cognitive agents. It involves the formation of prerequisites for the development of new models and the theory of understanding within the framework of artificial intelligence, which in the future will help to build a holistic theory of the nature of human mind. The article will be interesting for specialists working in the field of artificial intellectual systems and cognitive agents construction, as well as for scientists from other scientific fields – first of all, philosophy, neurophysiology and psychology.