Minds, Brains, and Programs

Searle, John R. "Minds, Brains, and Programs." The Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3 (1980): 417-24. Followed by "Open Peer Commentary."

Looks at the question, "'Could a machine think?' On the argument advanced here only a machine could think, and only very special kinds of machines, namely brains and machines with internal causal powers equivalent to those of brains. And that is why strong AI—the idea that a properly programmed computer (showing AI) can "understand and have other cognitive states"—"has little to tell us about thinking, since it [strong AI] is not about machines but about programs, and no program by itself is sufficient for thinking." Thinking requires intentionality, and intentionality is "a biological phenomenon" (from JRS's abstract, opening paragraph, and penultimate paragraph).