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From: jim@ism780.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Can computers think? - (nf)
Message-ID: <187@ism780.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-May-84 00:20:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780.187
Posted: Mon May 21 00:20:45 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 22-May-84 07:43:51 EDT
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#R:stolaf:-169800:ism780:20200002:000:1342
ism780!jim    May 19 19:18:00 1984

> Computers are NOT "effectively Turing machines." Turing proposed his
> test to answer the question, Can computers think?

Go read up on Turing machines.  They are not related to the Turing test.

The rest of your discussion attacks a straw man.  I know of no one who claims
that current electronic computers can think, beyond their ability to solve
problems.  The question is, are computers potentially capable of thinking?
Could they be developed to such a degree that they could think in the sense
that they could pass Turing's test?  Personally, I doubt that any technology
was does not involve growing could ever produce a machine of the complexity
of the human brain.  However, I do believe that it is theoretically possible
(but no time soon) to develop biological technology to the point where an
organic brain of a given design could be developed and then trained
(programmed).  The only counter-argument I can imagine is that there is a
magic ingredient which is supplied supernaturally, and is not available
to human technology.

On the other hand, one could take the view that we already are constantly
developing these brains, although we can't control their specifications,
and we are training them for desired tasks, although rather inefficiently,
and with lots and lots of bugs.

-- Jim Balter, INTERACTIVE Systems (ima!jim)