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Can computers think?

created by hardcorekitty

(idea) by themusic (6.7 y) (print)   ?   (I like it!) Sun Sep 03 2000 at 21:43:19

I'm not sure I understand; I'm not a computer.

I am also not sure I would want to pattern my intuition and assumptions on these parts.

When I took math and especially physics, many years ago now, my grade 11 physics teacher talked about the undefined terms upon which the whole project was based. That these were the foundation from which all else grew, things like distance, time, and I think space. I am sure some or all of these terms have been defined precisely by now.

Maybe we can communicate more exactly with a computer than another person, but can the computer communicate more exactly with us. I do not pose this as some word-game (though I like word-games), but because as long as we are the indended recipient of whatever the computer is processing, it is our uncertainty that governs. As it would in our attempting to communicate with the computer, would it not?

Can we ever be taken out of the dialogue?

Whether or not computers can think seems not to be the subject of the above writeup, but whether people can think, or rather, how precisely can people think and communicate.

It has always seemed to me that it is in the very fallibility of human communication that its greatest miracle lies. We are always striving to make sense, to understand what each other is saying.

We are open to new ways of understanding old words, old ideas--the world opens up to us in new, unforeseen and exciting ways.

And sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes we fail at understanding.


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