1. John Searle's Chinese room argument aims to show that computers cannot truly understand language or think, despite appearing to do so.
2. Functionalism claims that anything that performs the functions of the mind can be considered mentally intelligent. But Searle argues that simulating intelligent behavior does not equate to understanding.
3. In his Chinese room experiment, Searle imagines himself in a room receiving Chinese symbols and manipulating other symbols, without understanding Chinese. This shows that syntactically following rules is not the same as semantics or understanding.