Philosophy
The rise of computers in the 20th century, and especially their exponentially increasing computational capacity and speed, has gotten many curious minds to speculate as to whether it is possible at some point to create computers that can think. Those who believe in things like the computational singularity, such as David Chalmers, think it's just a matter of time before we have to bow down to our new mechanized overlords.
Here is a Philosophy Bites interview with Chalmers on just such a question:
Others, like philosopher John Searle, however, think that, given everything we know about computation, it is impossible, even in principle, for computers ever to think, no matter their computational capacity. To prove this point, Searle came up with what has come to be regarded, by supporters and detractors alike, as a classic thought experiment: the Chinese room, which you get to learn about in the following 60 seconds.
For more on questions of mind, consciousness, personal identity, etc., visit the Brainspotting tag.
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Philosophy
The Chinese Room Thought Experiment
Here is a Philosophy Bites interview with Chalmers on just such a question:
Others, like philosopher John Searle, however, think that, given everything we know about computation, it is impossible, even in principle, for computers ever to think, no matter their computational capacity. To prove this point, Searle came up with what has come to be regarded, by supporters and detractors alike, as a classic thought experiment: the Chinese room, which you get to learn about in the following 60 seconds.
For more on questions of mind, consciousness, personal identity, etc., visit the Brainspotting tag.
- Optimism, Brains, Thinking, And Artificial Intelligence
Mind and brain questions today. David Airth asks, "Why are some people optimistic and others pessimistic? I am an optimist, whereas my father was a pessimist."Certainly, at least part of the answer lies in the brain. Researchers Tali Sharot, Alison Riccardi,...
- Schrödinger?s Cat... In 60 Seconds
We've seen in previous episodes of this 60-second Adventures in Thought series, all sorts of philosophical, logical, mathematical and scientific paradoxes and all-around weirdness. To remind you, we've seen Zeno's paradox concerning motion,...
- Happy Birthday, Alan Turing
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"Three and a half thought experiments in philosophy of mind" by Massimo Pigliucci September 9th, 2013 Institute for Emerging Ethics & Technologies You can tell I've had philosophy of mind on my mind lately. I've written about the Computational...
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