"Matter Matters!"

Watching the movie A.I. has totally changed my perspective on the argument between Searle and Dennett. I used to believe that if a super computer was arranged in the right sort of way, then it would have a mind and would respond just as a human would to any sort of stimuli (agreeing with Dennett rather that Searle). But after watching the way that David responds to things has made me realize that even if a super computer was created to act just like humans as in the movie, it would still would be missing something that humans have. Thus I am agreeing with Searle and the statement that “Matter Matters.” David is a Mecha, a robot with a super computer as a brain that is programmed to act and show emotions just as a human boy would, but his understanding of the world is missing something. Now I cannot describe this “something” very well, but it is very clear from some examples in the movie that David does not understand some things in the same way that Martin, a real boy and David’s brother, does. A few of these examples are like when Martin is provoking David to eat the spinach and when David holds on to Martin to protect him then falls into the pool and doesn’t let go. In the first example David eats the spinach even though the other Mecha (Teddy, the super toy teddy-bear) tells him that he will break. This shows that he doesn’t truly understand the concept that he cannot perform all of the same functions that a real human can, and by not realizing this he almost terminates himself. In the second example David gets poked with a knife by one of Martin’s friends at Martin’s birthday party, then he holds on to Martin saying, “keep me safe Martin.” While he is still holding on tightly they fall into the pool and Martin is unable to swim away and he needs to be recued while they leave David at the bottom of the pool to watch. He can’t drown because he doesn’t require oxygen, but he didn’t realize that he could have killed Martin by holding him at the bottom of the pool. These two examples I believe show that even if there were super computer that were advanced enough to make robots that could replicate human actions and emotions, that it still would not be close enough to a real human brain and perception to say that the robot’s computer brain is the same as a humans. For this reason I agree with Searle and the statement “Matter Matters.” (I liked the movie a lot too; I think it really helped my understanding of the arguments presented in class.)