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Notes -
On the flip side... how is the thought experiment helping illustrate anything to anyone who doesn't already agree with Searle's take? It's as if he's saying "...and obviously the room doesn't know anything so functionalism is wrong."
One man's modus ponens is another man's modus tollens. 🤷
I believe the original intent was indeed that the concept of the room being intelligent should be absurd enough as to discredit the idea of functionalism. As in specifically designing something that is, ostensibly, fake would still pass the bar for what people would consider artificially intelligent.
The popularity of the thought experiment is, I think, a good example of a scissor statement where depending on your metaphysical outlook you will be puzzled that anybody could ever think the room is or isn't speaking Chinese.
Hence to disregard the experiment as fruitless is a mistake in my view, it's interesting precisely because it generates wildly different certainties.
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