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From: lws@comm.WANG.COM (Lyle Seaman)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Can machines think....
Message-ID: <1990Feb27.162610.16639@comm.WANG.COM>
Date: 27 Feb 90 16:26:10 GMT
References: <2313@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu> <1990Feb19.165835.9673@pcsbst.pcs.com> <3964@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> <773@kubix.kub.nl>
Organization: Wang Labs, Platform Comms.
Lines: 35

weigand@kub.nl (Hans Weigand) writes regarding submarines and airplanes:
>... flying means roughly something
>like "MOVE IN AIR ON OWN FORCE", whereas swimming is more than "MOVE
>IN WATER ON OWN FORCE": it implies a certain kind of moving, inside
>or on top of the water, that we attribute to humans, fishes, ducks,
>but not to ships, submarines, and surfers. Redefining the meaning
>of "to swim" to a purely functional term is no solution of course:
>then you can say that a submarine can swim, but you still have not
>characterized the swimming in its original sense.

>(A similar problem exists already for characterizing "flying" with
>respect to "move in the air". A jumping frog does not fly).

>When we go to the term "thinking", again we have to ask ourselves
>whether the functional performance completely captures the concept
>or not. ....

All of this is just language usage.  If instead of being called "flying
machines", the early attempts at airplanes had been called "supraterrans"
or such, we might now say that only birds and bats fly, because it involves
flapping motions that we usually only attribute to some kinds of animals.
And early attempts at submarines were never called "swimming machines".
(Does a flying squirrel fly?  Or a flying fish?  How is this different 
from a frog?)

So I think the debate over "do machines think" is really just a debate 
over how we (fluent English speakers) use the term _think_ and not a 
discussion of what machines can do.  

Now, to confuse the issue.   Do dogs love their humans?  Does this question
raise the same problems as the question of whether machines think?

Lyle.
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