Thought Experiments
Philosophy's laboratory. These mental experiments probe the deepest questions about minds, consciousness, and understanding—questions that become newly urgent in the age of AI.
"The question is not whether intelligent machines can have any emotions, but whether machines can be intelligent without any emotions."
— Marvin Minsky
The Turing Test
Alan Turing • 1950
Can machines think?
The foundational test for machine intelligence: if a computer can fool a human into thinking it's human, does it think?
The Chinese Room
John Searle • 1980
Syntax vs semantics
A person follows rules to manipulate Chinese symbols without understanding them. Does the system understand Chinese?
Mary's Room
Frank Jackson • 1982
Knowledge vs experience
Mary knows everything about color but has never seen it. When she finally sees red, does she learn something new?
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
Thomas Nagel • 1974
The limits of understanding
Even perfect knowledge of bat neurology can't tell us what echolocation feels like from the inside.
The Philosophical Zombie
David Chalmers • 1996
Consciousness without behavior
Imagine a being physically identical to you, behaving identically, but with no inner experience. Is this conceivable?
The Brainstorm Machine
Daniel Dennett • 1991
Sharing qualia
A machine that connects two brains, letting you experience another person's sensations directly. Would this answer anything?
Grokking
OpenAI / Heinlein • 2022 / 1961
When does learning become understanding?
Neural networks suddenly "get it" long after seeming to stop learning. Does this sudden insight parallel human understanding?
Why These Matter Now
These experiments were designed to probe human consciousness. But with the emergence of Large Language Models, they've gained new relevance. When an AI passes the Turing Test, does it think? When it processes language, is there a "room" inside? When it describes experiencing something, is there something it's like to be that AI?
→ Explore how LLMs actually workTip: Ask the questions like "What is the Chinese Room argument?"