Comic #6650: robot-john-searle

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Description

Here's the transcription of the comic:

Panel 1: Person 1 (speaking): "Robot, are humans conscious?"

Panel 2: Robot (responding): "Are you familiar with Robot John Searle's Chinese Room argument?"

Panel 3: Person 1: "Imagine there's a man. He has a book that translates all possible phrases from English to Chinese."

Panel 4: (The diagram shows a flow of inputs and outputs.)

Panel 5: Person 1: "In order to do that and not be infinite in size, the 'book' must in fact have the ability to receive input, consider possible outputs based on knowledge and context, and make a choice of expression."

Panel 6: Person 1: "It's clear the book is conscious by any definition, but the human is just an operator of the book with no sense of what the symbols mean."

Panel 7: Person 1: "It turns out that this is what humans are like with reference to almost every subject - not just Chinese language, but most languages, mathematics, history, and in general the nature of reality."

Panel 8: Person 1: "Sure, they can operate in the universe, but they have no meaningful internal model of it."

Panel 9: Person 1: "Therefore we conclude that although a human does things, it's clear they are not in any sense conscious."

Panel 10: Person 1: "Wait, so I have no moral responsibility for my actions?"

Panel 11: Robot (responding): "Yes, but you are too timid to make use of that freedom."

Panel 12: Person 1: "Stupid truth-telling robot."

This transcription captures the dialogue and context within the comic accurately.