The Imperminance of Knowledge

I love libraries. But I’m kind of worried about their future—and it isn’t just libraries but the nature of information and knowledge in this material world. When I was teenager, I thought of libraries as temples of revealed wisdom. The grown-ups had learned all these things and had left this wonderful legacy of their knowledge archived in the endless shelves stretching before my little hands. Somewhere in those dusky books was everything I could ever hope to know. It was ...Read More

Are Artificial Intelligence (AI) Devices Really Intelligent?

Many people were surprised when, recently, a poem (included below) was “composed” by an AI computer in the Artificial Intelligence Lab, Computer science department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (India). Some people insisted that it is conscious; it has emotions; it has understanding; and it is indeed intelligent; otherwise how can it compose such a nice poem? The answer to the above raised question can be given by Searle’s arguments: In fact, computers can compose a poem in ...Read More

Artificial Intelligence–Getting Computers to Think

How do we get a computer to think? The only way I can think of is the use of neural nets. Almost learning by trial and error, much like a small baby does. I think their has been research into this, but I’m not sure what the current situation is with this… Anyone any ideas? Mike Warren. You’re trying to get a computer to act like a person but you don’t really know what a person is. If you want to ...Read More

Can a Computer Have a Mind?

The question of whether a mechanical device could ever be said to think – to experience feelings, or to have a mind – is not really new one. But it has been given a new impetus, even an urgency, by the advent of modern computer technology. The question touches upon deep issues of philosophy. What does it mean to think or to feel? What is a mind? Does mind really exist? Assuming that they do, to what extent are minds ...Read More

Are Computer Games Really Conscious?

The world was stunned in May 1997 when Deep Blue, a chess programme running on a high-powered computer, defeated world champion Gary Kasparov in a six-game series. How could a manmade machine excel the human mind itself? Is it intelligent? Is it conscious? Can it think? These are some of the questions that arose in the minds of many. The question raised above can be answered by understanding in terms of certain distinctions between what computers and humans ...Read More