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"The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim." - Edsger Dijkstra (EWD898).
by Ace17 8y ago
"The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim."
- Edsger Dijkstra (EWD898).
- dtech 8y agoThis is not relevant as it is a comment on philosophical discussion about "Thinking" machines Understanding why a machine learning model makes certain decision is very relevant in practice.
- signa11 8y agoobligatory heinlein quote: Am not going to argue whether a machine can “really” be alive, “really” be self-aware. Is a virus self-aware? Nyet. How about oyster? I doubt it. A cat? Almost certainly. A human? Don’t know about you, tovarisch, but I am. Somewhere along evolutionary chain from macromolecule to human brain self-awareness crept in. Psychologists assert it happens automatically whenever a brain acquires certain very high number of associational paths. Can’t see it matters whether paths are protein or platinum.
- amitprayal 8y agoNot sure about that , what if the path does matter.
- trevyn 8y agoWhat if there is no evidence that the path matters, and on top of that, there is evidence that human brains and society are biased toward unjustified belief that the path matters?
- amitprayal 8y agoAt present the only evidence that the path matters is you yourself, till we find/create something that disproves it , all, else is speculation.
- x3tm 8y agoOr planes can fly, right? I understand this, however it's not a fair point. Without proper understanding of 'swimming' and 'flying' these technologies wouldn't be possible. So the link between thinking and AI is not totally trivial in my opinion.
- pelario 8y ago>> (...) whether Submarines Can Swim. > Or planes can fly, right? It's very interesting that there is no problem to describe the action of planes as "flying" (because we humans do not fly), but OTOH it feels very weird to say that a submarine swim... becase WE do swim...
- darkerside 8y agoFun quote, but the question is not "whether" but "how". And knowing how submarines "swim" is indeed crucial to their operation and maintenance.