WHY PEOPLE THINK COMPUTERS CAN'T


	WHY PEOPLE THINK COMPUTERS CAN'T

wildcat

7-10-2007 10:11 AM

1063 views

tags:

science, philosophy, technology, a.i., mind, consciousness, computers

wildcat says:

Marvin Minsky, MIT

First published in AI Magazine, vol. 3 no. 4, Fall 1982

2 Comments |

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7-10-2007 9:57 PM

adamc

I think it's only a matter of time until a computer is so intuitive that it can convince most people that it is thinking even if it isn't really thinking.

7-11-2007 8:17 PM

Kore7

One of the most famous papers in the field of cognitive science.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/7759d85a-04e1-4d12-ad12-aa6cfdd82730/8B68BE4D-1065-48FC-934A-3C0CB7789CC8/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt" href="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt" style="font-size: 11px;">web.media.mit.edu</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt">Most people think computers will never be able to think.   That is, really 
think. Not now or ever.   To be sure, most people also agree that computers 
can do many things that a person would have to be thinking to do.   Then 
how could a machine seem to think but not actually think?  Well, setting 
aside the question of what thinking actually is, I think that most of us 
would answer that by saying that in these cases, what the computer is 
doing is merely a superficial imitation of human intelligence. It has been 
designed to obey certain simple commands, and then it has been provided 
with programs composed of those commands.  Because of this, the 
computer has to obey those commands, but without any idea of what's 
happening</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt">We naturally admire our Einsteins and Beethovens, and wonder if 
computers ever could create such wondrous theories or symphonies</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt">We shouldn't intimidate ourselves by our admiration of our Beethovens 
and Einsteins</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/ComputersCantThink.txt">Do outstanding minds differ from ordinary minds in any special way?</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/8B68BE4D-1065-48FC-934A-3C0CB7789CC8/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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