Chapter 18: The Chinese Room Philosophy
2013 Words
Chapter 18: The Chinese Room Philosophy
Dad’s voice over my cellphone sounds to be wheezy and tired that it made me wonder what’s keeping up him late. Probably it’s because of the obnoxious snotty kids he’s been teaching in his classes. “How are you doing there, princess?”
“It’s a struggle of course, but I’m doing good,” I answered. I was walking to my next class, thankfully it was just a floor below. It’s Philosophy 1, Philo 1 for short, which I think is my favorite subject for this semester.
“You’ve been there for a month now,”
“A month and a week,” I corrected. I opened the heavy door of my designated classroom and rightfully sat at the chair at the middle. Three people were already there, as usual, sitting in front of me. Their names were Lee, Luisa and Ben.They’re always together and always early. I came to know them when Luisa told me randomly a joke while Lee and Ben peered in and waited for my reaction. I didn’t get the joke but I think that’s the joke. “How’s Mimo, dad?”
“Mimo’s fat. Like she’s so fat I think she’s pregnant!”
“Oh my God, she’s pregnant?”
“Or obese,”
“That lady should be pregnant so it can have tiny tiny babies that I could take away from her, then love them to death”
“Princess, I know how much you love babies but Mimo is alone in her cage, how can she be pregnant?”
“Maybe a miracle happened,” I felt burning stares at me. A few other people had entered the room and their quite intrigued by my phone conversation. I’m judging them to be judgemental. “Dad, I gotta go, I’m in my class now,”
“Okay, princess, take care there,” I waited for Dad to end the call which took about ten whole seconds. Luisa waved a hand to me so I waved back nicely at her. Ben and Lee started laughing as if I done something wrong. Those boys are kinda goofy and always joking.
“Hey hey hey!” a slender tall beautiful woman opened the door and greeted us energetically. “Let’s start the class, shall we?” Ms. Diwa asked. She is our prof and as usual she is crazily hyped up . She explained that she always drink coffee before our class that’s why she’s always on the mood. A few seats still lie vacant but that doesn’t stop her from talking and discussing the lessons. “So who here are familiar to thought experiments? Who loves thought experiments? Raise your hand.” A few raises their hand while I don’t. “Alright. Today I’m going to tell you a thought experiment and later on, we’ll discuss it. The title is the Chinese Room,” some of my classmates gasped in delight with their “ooh” and “ah”.
“The Chinese Room is like this. A man is locked up on a room with no other openings besides a single door. No one can see him from the outside. Then there is this Chinese woman who interacted with him through slipping a message from the space below the door. Now, the man inside doesn’t understand chinese but in the room there is a book which he can understand that provides him instructions on how to reply to the chinese woman outside. So what do you think is the argument here? What is the problem here” she gazed over us in the room until her eyes met mine. Crap! I’m doomed now. She’s going to call me! “Ms. Elois, what do you think?”
I cleared my throat and looked around me. They were all staring at me awaiting my guess. “I think the problem is whether the man truly understands the chinese woman outside.” I heard a few laughs but Ms. Diwa shushed them so I continued. “The man can respond correctly but it doesn’t mean he understands right?” Ms. Diwa gave me a satisfied smile.
“Very good, Ms. Elois. This argument is used in debate about true artificial intelligence. Let’s make this clear. Let’s change the chinese woman into a Filipino, alright. The man inside can’t understand Filipino or Tagalog. Then the Filipino, slipped in a message saying “Kumusta ka?”. The man now searched the book on how to respond to it and successfully it told him to copy the following characters accordingly “Ayos lang”. That is a fitting answer but he still doesn’t understand Filipino. He just followed the instructions and copied it. Consistently, he would respond perfectly. Now if that’s the case, how can the chinese or the Filipino outside know if the man inside could understand what she’s saying?”
Lee raised his hand. “Ma’am I don’t think the one outside could ever tell,”
“Maybe. Isn’t it quite awful? What if there is a being unable to understand how a true human being feels, but highly intelligent enough to imitate it? Does that being truly feels happiness, sadness, being scared? Being in love? Imagine a person chatting with SimSimi, a chatting robot. And that person has no idea that SimSimi is nothing but a robot, a program on the internet that knows and learns how humans converse and mimics it. That person might not be able to tell the difference.”
“A highly intelligent being who can learn anything,” I hovered on those words. My brain brewed up an idea that I don’t want to think about. What if Nikolas really can't fall in love. What if he just imitates it through observation not any different from him when he learns tennis or speak other languages.
“But aren't we all locked up inside our own room- our minds” Ms. Diwa continued. “We wouldn't ever know what's running on another person's mind, would we?’
After class, I stumbled upon Jasper outside Felizardo Building. He had a haircut and now he looked younger than himself when I first met him.
“Jasper, what are you doing here?”
“Elois, it’s been like four weeks that I’ve been doing this. You know I always wait for you after your class, aren’t you used to it?”
“But why? Why are you doing this?”
“Is it important why?” Me and him began strolling away from the building. It’s true that we had spent a lot of time together within the last few weeks but I still question why he’s being like this. “Do you want some coffee?” he offered since we usually get some latté after class.
“Nah, I want to sleep later,” It’s true. I haven’t had a good sleep since the start of the week so I badly need one.
“Leslie is been practicing a lot huh?”
“Yeah, your sister is very dedicated to acting.”
“Really? Was she any good?”
“She’s great, trust me, she’d shown me her acting skills. Unlike you,”
“What about me?” Jasper eyed me suspiciously.
“I was thinking that Leslie’s acting skill runs in the family? Is that true?”
“Oh no no no. I don’t do acting.” he scoffed. “She’s one of a kind. And I knew long before that my sister always wanted to be a pretty little superstar. Despite the facade she's showing”
“You love your sister very much don't you?”
“Yeah she's my only family left. I would protect her even if it cost my life.”
“Only family?” I asked a little bit intrigued.
“Yeah. After our father left us for some disgusting mistress, homewrecker whatever, we were stuck with our mom who after the separation had to work her life off to feed our hungry mouths.”
“Oh my. I'm sorry.”
“Well after our mother died, Leslie and I lived with our aunt here in Manila. Thankfully we both have scholarships so that we wouldn't be much of a pain of an ass to them.” We were quiet for a moment then he started to talk again. “Elois, how about your mother? I’ve heard of your father but not your mom.”
I faintly smiled at him then shook my head no. Jasper seems to noticed my uneasiness about the topic and gracefully laced his right little finger to mine. Slowly, his other fingers followed and his palm damped to mine almost too careful, almost too scared. I tried to look at him, to look at his face but he was staring to somewhere far off.
“It's okay now isn't it? “
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“You could tell me anything, you know. But if you’re not ready, I respect that.”
On the way home, Jasper was still holding my hand. And I let him. He was holding it for so long but I haven't thought why he was doing that. And as if our intertwined hands were cable that connected our minds, we decided to stop walking for now. He gave me a smile I never saw before. It's like he's excited to tell me something but also teases me to make me guess first what he’s about to say. “Elois, you know I really like you romantically.” He stressed the word romantically. Yes, he held the last syllable long enough for me to think of the most appropriate response.
“You like me?” I shrieked in genuine disbelief. I know that wasn't the best response but does anyone know what is the best response to that?
“Yeah. Am I not obvious? Really? You don't know?” His face is now so red it's hypnotizing.
“No, I'm surprised. I really am,”
“Really, even with my blabbermouth sister haven't hinted you in some way?”
“She did, but I shrugged it off.” Now his crazily adorable smile faded into a more nervous smile.
“Okay so now you know.”
“Yeah I think so,”
“So now that you know,” he laughed a little “may I ask you on a date? I know what we've talked about earlier was so heavy but after that talk, I know for myself that I want you in my life more than anyone else. “
“A date? Me?” I began to wonder how many dates people have here in Manila. I had my sort of first date last month and here Jasper asking me for another date. Is it the pollution here in Manila that makes these people think of dates more than they should?
“Yes. A date with you. If that's um cool to you that is.”
My gut reaction have already an answer but my brain of course had a better one. “Jasper, I don't want to rush this thing between us,”
“Oh,” is all that he could say.
“But I want to let you wait a little bit for my answer, would that be alright?”
He nodded and his crazily adorable smile lit up once again.
- Writer
