I'm reminded of the Chinese Box discussion (related to Turing Tests?): put a man in a box, and give him an English -> Chinese phrase book. Feed him phrases on s

I'm reminded of the Chinese Box discussion (related to Turing Tests?): put a man in a box, and give him an English -> Chinese phrase book. Feed him phrases on strips of paper in English - his job is to look up the phrase, write the Chinese equivalent on the back, and hand the paper back. Voila - you have a translating machine. But can we say the machine is able to translate from English to Chinese? Knowing Conway's investment guide in no way qualifies you to pick the right people or ideas to invest in. It's a Chinese Box, and you don't speak Chinese. (You know, for metaphorical instances of 'You' and 'Chinese'.) Edit: It's the Chinese Room Argument by John Searle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_room . Searle saw it fit to give the man a whole room to complete his tasks!