Cyborgs in the Chinese Room: Boundaries Transgressed and Boundaries Blurred

Abstract There is little doubt that, philosophically speaking, intentionality has aroused much passion among commentators on AI and cognition. Part of the reason for this would seem to be that it strikes right at the heart of what it is to be human, what separates us from, perhaps animals, but certainly machines. This may be why we are so reluctant to let go of the idea that intentionality is possibly the fundamental attribute which makes us human and therefore separate from that which is not human. This is part of a broader picture of the feelings towards humanity that AI stirs up. Holding onto intentionality come what may points to one of the last refuges of enlightenment thinking, the uniqueness of the human animal. I argue that John Searle’s desire to keep hold of human intentionality through all the increasingly elaborate versions of his Chinese Room thought-experiment may fruitfully be understood in this vein. I explore the implications of such a hypothesis in this chapter.