The Annotation Game: On Turing (1950) on Computing, Machinery, and Intelligence
Stevan R. Harnad · CogPrints (University of Southampton) · 2006
I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think? " (Turing 1950) Turing starts on an equivocation. We know now that what he will go on to consider is not whether or not machines can think, but whether or not machines can do what thinkers like us can do-- and if so, how. Doing is performance capacity, empirically observable. Thinking (or cognition) is an internal state, its correlates empirically observable as neural activity (if we only knew which neural activity corresponds to thinking!) and its associated quality introspectively observable as our own mental state when we are thinking. Turing's proposal will turn out to have nothing to do with either observing neural states or introspecting mental states, but only with generating performance capacity (intelligence?) indistinguishable from that of thinkers like us. This should begin with definitions of... "machine" and "think"... [A] statistical survey such as a Gallup poll [would be] absurd. Instead of attempting such a definition I shall replace the question by another... in relatively unambiguous words. 1 of 28 11/09/06 12:57 I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think