Tuesday, September 23, 2008

03. Computing Machinery and Intelligence - Alan Turing, 1950

-Computers were initially viewed as "number-crunchers" before people realized that computer technology could incorporate language
-Alan Turing attempted to "decrypt encoded language"
-Turing asked:  Can a computer make a human believe that the computer is human.  
-Anticipated A.I.
-He describes the computer as a verbal device that could "operate on language"
-"Can a computer think?"
-Digital computers are consisted of: storing of information, executive unit, which carries out an array of operations, and control
Arguments against computers being able to think that interested me:
-"The Theological Objection" - since God did not create machines, they cannot think.
-"The Heads in the Sand Objection" - It is too scary to think about machines having the ability to think, so we should disregard the idea.
-"The Mathematical Objection" - Math proves that machines are limited
-"The Argument from Consciousness" - Machines cannot feel - so they can not think
-"Lady Lovelace Objection" - the machine cannot create anything of its own, on its own.
 

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