Artificial Intelligence

Term Paper # 103752

Philosophy

This paper explains J.R. Lucas' argument against the possibility of artificial intelligence (AI).

1,323 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses Lucas' famous argument in his essay "Minds, Machines and Godel" that human thought cannot be copied by a computer. More specifically, the paper discusses Lucas' finding that true AI can never be achieved because there is always a statement that a machine program cannot recognize and a human mind can. The paper concludes that human beings do not think mechanistically unless they set out to do so, and instead thought and human consciousness are shaped by emotions as well as logic.

From the Paper:

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) simply refers to machines that can actually think, but the term also refers to the issue of how to demonstrate AI. In fact, it can only be inferred that other human minds can think as we do because we cannot observe this process or monitor it to see the action of the process in the way we can follow our own mind, and even in the latter case, the mechanisms at work are rarely clear to us. Ideas about this issue have been analyzed by philosophers and scientists in a variety of ways, from considering how to develop a machine that can emulate the complexities of the human mind to how to test such a machine to see if it can think or not. Often, the issue has been addressed as a competition, such as that between human chess champion Gary Kasparov and a chess-playing computer known as Big Blue. The fact that Kasparov won the most points in the six matches does not change the fact that the computer almost won--does this mean the computer can think?"

Sample of Sources Used:

Bailey, J. (1996). After Thought: The Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence. New York: Basic Books.
Crevier, D. (1993). AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence. New York: Basic Books.
Lucas, J.R. (1961). "Minds, Machines and Godel." Philosophy 36, 112.
Penrose, R. & Gardner, M. (1999). The emperor's new mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clark, A.F., Millican, P.J.R., & Turing, A.M. (1996). The Legacy of Alan Turing. Volume: 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press.