Can Machines/Computers Think Essays - Cognitive Science, Cognition

Can Machines/Computers Think? Can computers, robots, and software agents can literally be said to think? Humans think, chimps think, dogs think, cats and birds think. But do computers? For example, If computers can be made to think, then does that mean that humans are a kind of robot and their brains a kind of computer; a neurocomputer? One of the deeper issues here is that the term thinking is ambiguous in at least two ways: it can include being conscious of one's environment (surroundings), one's personal feelings and thoughts, etc., or it can mean cogitate, learn, plan, and solve problems, where these latter terms pick out mental events that may or may not be conscious. The idea that machines could think occurred to the very first computer builders and programmers. The Turing t es t is a test for intelligence in machines. In 1950, Alan Turing published, Computing Machinery and Intelligence where he described a game he called the imitation game involving a human judge conversing only in written text with a second human and a language-using computer, each hidden away in separate rooms (3 rooms total). The point of the game is for the computer to converse in such a human-like way with the judge that the judge cannot tell the second human from the computer. The computer wins if the judge cannot tell which conversant is the human and which the computer is. Turing's point is that, were a computer to successfully and repeatedly pass such a test, we should then regard the computer as intelligent on the human level. To date, no computer has passed the Test reliably and often. While we don't know what thought or intelligence is, essentially, and while we're very far from agreed on what things do and don't have it, almost everyone agrees that hum ans think, and agrees with Descartes that our intelligence is amply manifest in our speech. Along these lines, Alan Turing suggested that if computers showed human level conversational abilities we should, by that, be amply assured of their intelligence. Turing continues, We may now ask the question, what will happen when a machine takes the part of A in this game?" These questions replace our original, "Can machines think?" This test may serve, as Turing notes, "to test not just for shallow verbal dexterity, but for background knowledge and underlying reasoning ability as well, since interrogators may ask any question or pose any verbal challenge they choose". Regarding this test Turing famously predicted that in about fifty years' time by the year 2000 it will be possible to program computers to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will have no more than 70 per cent chance of making the correct identification after five minutes of questioning. It is important to recognize that Turing proposed his test as a qualifying test for human-level intelligence, not as a disqualifying test for intelligence. So, from the failure of machines to pass this test, we can infer neither their complete lack of intelligence nor, that their thought is not up to the human level. Nevertheless, the manners of current machine failings clearly bespeak deficits of wisdom and wit, not just an inhuman style. Still, defenders of the Turing test claim we would have ample reason to deem them intelligent - as intelligent as we are - if they could pass this test. The extent to which machines seem intelligent depends first, on whether the work they do is intellectual or manual. Let's say that Turing is correct, and that it is imaginable to build a computer that can imitate human intelligence in such a way that it is indistinguishable from real human intelligence. Can we then conclude that the computer indeed thinks? The difficulty with questions like this is, what do we mean by thinking? What do we need for genuine thinking to occur? Consciousness? Understanding? These are not the same things. I am not always conscious of what happens in my mind, and when I am conscious of things, it may well be that I don't understand anything. According to philosopher John Searle, it is understanding that we are after. Let's follow Searle in this respect,

Free Essays on Young Turks

People are almost never happy with what they have. They are always wanting something different, and when they get what they think they want, they change their minds and want something else. This is an ongoing cycle in many cultures. The Middle Eastern society is no exception. Countless reform movements and revolutions mark the history of this region. In the early twentieth century, one of these reform movements arose. This group of revolutionaries were coined the â€Å"Young Turks†. However similar, this group differed in many ways from earlier movements. The Young Turks were generally well educated, they came from jobs as civil servants, and also a great number were students from the University in Istanbul. The earlier groups such as the Young Ottomans, and the Tanzimat, were from upper class families in the aristocracy, this is definitely not true of the Young Turks. The Young Turks also wanted a return of the Constitution and Parliament. This is also true of the Young Ottomans, but not of the Tanzimat. A major difference between these three movements is their emphasis on Islam. The Young Turks had by far the least emphasis on Islam. They were more focused on a Turkish nation which was muslim, than being muslim first and Turkish second. The Young Turks also envisioned an empire of only Turkish speaking muslims, and not of an empire encompassing all the Ottoman lands and other races and ethnic groups which were encompassed therein. Even though it wasn’t their original concern, the movement of the Young Turks is the first real step toward creating a unified muslim nation. In my opinion, they realized they weren’t able to control all the different lands which had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and they didn’t want to. They wanted to create a Turkish nation which only included Turkish speakers. They did not intend this to be a geographic boundary of the nation. The Young Turks planned on the nation... Free Essays on Young Turks Free Essays on Young Turks People are almost never happy with what they have. They are always wanting something different, and when they get what they think they want, they change their minds and want something else. This is an ongoing cycle in many cultures. The Middle Eastern society is no exception. Countless reform movements and revolutions mark the history of this region. In the early twentieth century, one of these reform movements arose. This group of revolutionaries were coined the â€Å"Young Turks†. However similar, this group differed in many ways from earlier movements. The Young Turks were generally well educated, they came from jobs as civil servants, and also a great number were students from the University in Istanbul. The earlier groups such as the Young Ottomans, and the Tanzimat, were from upper class families in the aristocracy, this is definitely not true of the Young Turks. The Young Turks also wanted a return of the Constitution and Parliament. This is also true of the Young Ottomans, but not of the Tanzimat. A major difference between these three movements is their emphasis on Islam. The Young Turks had by far the least emphasis on Islam. They were more focused on a Turkish nation which was muslim, than being muslim first and Turkish second. The Young Turks also envisioned an empire of only Turkish speaking muslims, and not of an empire encompassing all the Ottoman lands and other races and ethnic groups which were encompassed therein. Even though it wasn’t their original concern, the movement of the Young Turks is the first real step toward creating a unified muslim nation. In my opinion, they realized they weren’t able to control all the different lands which had been conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and they didn’t want to. They wanted to create a Turkish nation which only included Turkish speakers. They did not intend this to be a geographic boundary of the nation. The Young Turks planned on the nation...