Searle (Cold Storage)

Searle's "Cold Storage" thought experiment explores artificial intelligence by imagining a robot that can respond to questions and simulate understanding but doesn't truly “know” or understand. It's like a person following instructions to manipulate symbols without grasping their meaning. This illustrates the idea that computers or machines, no matter how sophisticated, may simulate intelligence without possessing genuine understanding or consciousness—highlighting the difference between syntactic processing (following rules) and semantic understanding (meaning). It questions whether machines can truly think or if they only mimic intelligence.