7;t think. The problem with the Turing test is that is tests for Human intelligence, and not just intelligence. Only a human can pass this test. A monkey, which most people would agree is intelligent, would not pass the test. An infant human would not pass the test either. Another argument against Artificial Intelligence is the Chinese Room. This example goes like this: If a human is sitting in a room with no interaction with the outside world and he is handed Chinese characters he will never learn what these characters mean. This human represents computers and the characters represent the information that passes through them. It’s true, computers probably don’t understand what we pass through them. They just process the information. But while they process this information they are doing tasks that require thinking such as ordering, ranking, copying, and remembering. Same with the human from the Chinese Room, he doesn’t know what the characters mean, but this does not mean that he is not thinking.Marvin Minskey (MIT) wrote an essay entitled “Why People Think Computers Can’t Think”. In it he discusses various arguments about the issue. In one part he makes this point:It is too easy to say things like, "Computer can't do (xxx), because they have no feelings, or thoughts". But here's a way to turn such sayings into foolishness. Change them to read like this. "Computer can't do (xxx), because all they can do is execute incredibly intricate processes, perhaps millions at a time". Now, such objections seem less convincing -- yet all we did was face one simple, complicated fact: we really don't yet know what the limits of computers are. Now let's face the other simple fact: our notions of the human mind are just as primitive. We are just beginning to understand computers. New programming techniques are being developed all the time. We are creating faster and better technology constantly. It ...
