Visual Perception in Artificial Intelligence and Philosophy of Mind

One of the most popular branches in philosophy of mind is functionalism. This paper seeks to make a new philosophical and research- based analysis of artificial intelligence. Through modeling the neurobiological structure of perception, it deals with simulating the man's visual perception. The study, which was conducted in 2013, has succeeded in simulating the mechanism of human’s visual perception through the use of artificial neural network systems and expert systems. After presenting the research, the philosophical outcomes are investigated, and by introducing a mental experiment, it is proved that from the viewpoint of the external viewer we cannot differentiate between the hypothetical super-intelligent robot and the self-conscious human. Although at first glance, there is a difference between these two models, this difference is not important for considering a system intelligent; therefore, the functionalistic approach can be defended. Moreover, in this study, John Searle’s Chinese Room argument is briefly introduced, criticized and analyzed through using the above-mentioned mental experiment.