The China brain, also called the Chinese nation thought experiment, imagines the entire population of China organized so that each person simulates the firing of a single neuron, communicating with other participants by telephone or radio in a pattern that reproduces the connections of a human brain. The thought experiment asks whether this vast, functionally organized system would thereby possess a mind or conscious experience of its own, in the way an ordinary brain does. It is used chiefly to challenge functionalism, the view in philosophy of mind that mental states are defined by the functional or causal role they play rather than by the physical material that realizes them, since functionalism seems committed to saying that the China brain, if functionally organized just like a human brain, must be conscious, a conclusion many find deeply counterintuitive and cite as evidence against the sufficiency of functional organization alone for genuine mental states.
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Position KindSourced to the subject's own account Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Sources
1. China Brain (Wikipedia)
WikipediaChina brain (Wikipedia), on Ned Block 1978
again in 1978 by Ned Block.
China brain (Wikipedia), introduction
In the philosophy of mind, the China brain thought experiment (also known as the Chinese Nation, Chinese Gym, or China-body) considers what would happen if each person in the entire population of China were asked to simulate the action of one neuron in the brain.
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the China brain count as an argument against functionalism rather than for it?
Functionalism holds that mental states depend only on functional organization, so a system wired like a brain should be conscious regardless of what it is made of; the China brain argues that consciousness is a problem for functionalism because it seems deeply counterintuitive that a nationwide network of people relaying signals by phone would thereby have a mind.
The China brain, also called the Chinese nation thought experiment, imagines the entire population of China organized so that each person simulates the firing of a single neuron, communicating with other participants by telephone or radio in a pattern that reproduces the connections of a human brain. It is used chiefly to challenge functionalism, the view in philosophy of mind that mental states are defined by the functional or causal role they play rather than by the physical material that realizes them, since functionalism seems committed to saying that the China brain, if functionally organized just like a human brain, must be conscious. The China brain argues that consciousness is a problem for functionalism precisely because many find that conclusion deeply counterintuitive, and cite it as evidence against the sufficiency of functional organization alone for genuine mental states.
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