4 ms·

This makes as much sense as saying the first robots capable of swimming will be human-form-factor pack mules designed to take small waterproof packs from China,

by patio11 12y ago

This makes as much sense as saying the first robots capable of swimming will be human-form-factor pack mules designed to take small waterproof packs from China, swim over the Pacific, and deposit them in America. Container ships make a heck of a lot more sense, right? Why optimize for pattern-matches-with-a-human on a task that humans inherently suck at? Incidentally, in quite possibly the only time I've ever agreed with him, Noam Chomsky said that this sort of example makes debating whether a machine will ever "think" pointless, since you're debating the word "think" in English rather than any fact about material reality. We don't say that container ships count as a machine "swimming", but Russians do.

omonra 12y ago
Actually in Russian a ship 'goes' :)
- patio11 12y ago
  Thanks for the correction -- my memory is apparently failing me.
  - omonra 12y ago
    It's one of these things that many people may not actually know (like how a ship in english is referred to as a 'she').
- gus_massa 12y ago
  Perhaps it’s only a Internet myth, but I remember a comment that said that in Russian the submarines swim (not the ships). I tried to google it, but I was unlucky, especially because a submarine crew decided to swim (without the submarine) in the arctic and make a video.
  - omonra 12y ago
    I guess professionals will still say say that submarine 'goes' so it's more correct. But both are used - google results are 25% higher for 'goes' vs 'swims'.
  - Turing_Machine 12y ago
    In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels (set in the Age of Sail), the characters often refer to ships and boats as "swimming" (e.g., the ship's carpenter saying "she'll swim" after repairing one of the boats). While that's not a primary source, O'Brian is generally conceded to have done painstaking research to make his novels as authentic as possible.
wglb 12y ago
I like the quote from Dijkstra better: The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.

by patio11 12y ago

omonra 12y ago

Actually in Russian a ship 'goes' :)

patio11 12y ago
Thanks for the correction -- my memory is apparently failing me.
- omonra 12y ago
  It's one of these things that many people may not actually know (like how a ship in english is referred to as a 'she').
gus_massa 12y ago
Perhaps it’s only a Internet myth, but I remember a comment that said that in Russian the submarines swim (not the ships). I tried to google it, but I was unlucky, especially because a submarine crew decided to swim (without the submarine) in the arctic and make a video.
- omonra 12y ago
  I guess professionals will still say say that submarine 'goes' so it's more correct. But both are used - google results are 25% higher for 'goes' vs 'swims'.
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels (set in the Age of Sail), the characters often refer to ships and boats as "swimming" (e.g., the ship's carpenter saying "she'll swim" after repairing one of the boats). While that's not a primary source, O'Brian is generally conceded to have done painstaking research to make his novels as authentic as possible.

wglb 12y ago

I like the quote from Dijkstra better: The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.