The Chinese Room Argument was published by John Searle in 1980, in which the author imagines himself in a room following instructions for responding to Chinese writing in notes that are being slipped under the door. Despite knowing no Chinese, by following the computers instructions to the letter, he sends context appropriate strings of Chinese characters back out the door, indicating to those outside of the room that there is a Chinese speaker inside the room. The argument is meant to indicate that despite the appearance of computer understanding or consciousness, the programming at work for a computer to manipulate strings of symbols for language does not actually demonstrate true consciousness. Just like the Chinese speakers outside of the theoretical room, when we as conscious beings who learn in part by pattern recognition see a computer do the same, we assume the same learning and experience is taking place within the computer as within ourselves.

This video talks mostly about the though experiment's implications for AI and computer learning, but the theory has also been used to talk about semantics, philosophy of language and mind, and theories of consciousness.

Searle viewed mental states as inherently biological- a result of our bodies natural processes, and therefore out of reach for a computer program. For example, though many argued that a computer program learns Chinese much like a child would, Searle argued that the child's sensory experiences of learning Chinese would make the process completely different. For Searle, the long argued mind-body problem, the problem of explaining how it is possible for minds and bodies to interact, is moot, as minds and bodies are not made of fundamentally different building blocks.

For related videos from TED-Ed, check out these videos on computer memory, the future of AI, and the benefits of a bilingual brain.