¶ … computers think?
First coming to theaters in 1984, The Terminator was a movie that captured audiences and enveloped them in a world of unknown- robots, intelligence, destruction and the future. The cyborg assassin in the movie fostered society's greatest fear- technology that developed so rapidly that people would not be able to control it. But to what end could this scientific fantasy movie become a reality? Could the laptops that people use everyday suddenly be able to think, act and even cause the destruction similar to that in the blockbuster movie? As technology develops at a rapid pace in modern day society, it solicits the all important question, can computers think?
Foremost, an understanding to the term and concept of thinking must be established as a foundational framework to move forward with the dilemma of computers being able to think. There are two different components to the concept of thinking: the mechanical part as well as the emotional part. First, the mechanical part seems to be set by "the doctrines first set down in the 1950s" by Carnegie-Mellon University Professor's Allen Newell and Herbert Simon, who asserted that "thinking is information processing" and that "information processing is computation, which is the manipulation of symbols" and finally that "symbols, because of their...
The insights by these professors helps gain insight into the more mechanical understanding of what thinking is and in its simplest form, thinking can be broken down into the fundamental components that the professors have described. It is true that thinking is more or less processing the information that is perceived by the brain, and that the symbols that are being perceived are the images and relationships in the outside world; but, there is additional layer of thinking that also contributes to the overall concept, which is the emotional aspect. Rene Descartes, famously wrote in his work The Discourse on Method, "I think, therefore I am" (Skirry, 2008). The meaning behind this statement is that thinking comprises a person- it makes up the essence of a person as it allows them to exhibit a vast array of thoughts, feelings, expressions, ideas, among other things. Being able to think, makes a person the way that they are- it makes everyone individual and it is the power of thinking that essentially arms people to be who they are, when they choose to do it. The power to think allows people to make choices, bad and good. Between the mechanical and emotional components, the concept of thinking is more completely understood and can be used in…
