Can Machines Think 2 Essay, Research Paper

Can Machines Think?

With the recent advances of technology, a computer being able to think for themselves is not a far cry away. But is it a reasonable analogy? Computers have been built as goal-oriented systems. Whether the goal is to beat the best chess player humankind has come to acknowledge or figure out the microscopic measurements for the distance between us and another planet. These are all goal-oriented systems, built for a specific reason. Humans differ in this area, and computers will never be able match the capabilities of a human in the aspect of thinking for themselves.

Humans are intricate species in everything we do. Humans have evolved over a period of many years to get to where they are today. We have learned from our ancestors and have been taught by our peers. Common sense, in my opinion is nothing that can be taught through lecture but learned through experience. Computers don t have previous knowledge to base their thoughts on, if they even have thoughts. Computers have the ability to manipulate concepts through the boundaries, which have been programmed into them. The concept of computers having a mind or common sense is beyond me. What would be programmed into the machine is an artificial mind that supposedly thinks for itself. What is this artificial mind based off of? I feel that experience is needed to acquire thoughts for yourself. Assumptions made by humans are common sense shared by all humans. This common sense would be impossible, in my mind, to download into computers.

So, in conclusion, the computers we have designed up to date have been goal oriented with a one-track mind. Humans might be goal-oriented to surviving, but what we do to survive is common sense. How we, as humans carry ourselves throughout everyday life, and how each of us differ from each other is something that will never be shared with us by a computer mind .