Avoiding alien capture? On The Guardian’s John Searle obituary (with appendices providing a newspaper style introduction for me and …)

The Guardian’s John Searle obituary, although it will probably be preferred to my own summary by some reviewers today - maybe all - suffers from some problems. The history of philosophy which accords Searle such a founding place is a bit questionable. And there are doubts over whether Jane O’Grady understands the Chinese room thought experiment and also performative language. I confess I use this article as an opportunity to write a Guardian style introduction to myself, in case the newspaper ever one day needs it: in an appendix.