Test Of Computer Intelligence example essay topic

Can computers think independently and do they have "minds"? This question has been the topic of countless, bad movies since the 1950's as well as a number of science fiction novels. We all believe that we have minds. It is something that is taken for granted but what exactly is a mind and are humans the only to possess them? Ever since the invention of the computer, they have been a mystery, even to the smartest of scientists.

With the ongoing development of artificial intelligence and high population of computer literate people, the possibility of computers with minds must be re-evaluated. The initial question that must be answered before tackling the mind / computer problem is how do you define a mind? This is something that philosophers have been trying to answer for hundreds of years, long before the invention of the computer. Renee Descartes supported the concept of 'dualism' which is the belief that the mind is a separate non-physical entity associated with the body during its life.

On the other hand, behaviorism holds the notion that the mind does not exist but rather patterns of behavior and our pre-dispositions to such behavior. Functionalism is another school of thought that has come to light recently and draws its theory from computer technology. Functionalism believes that the mind is simply a program and the body, its hardware. With all the different theories, none of them have been able to answer the question on whether computers are similar enough to the human brain to have intelligence. The think the simplest definition for intelligence is the ability to adapt. You can tell a computer to go to a specific IP address but if IBM's address is no longer web the computer does not know how to find the new one.

More specifically, it can be said that intelligence is the to take into consideration the circumstances of completing a certain task. Alan Turing, a mathematician, sought to answer the question on whether or not computers possess intelligence. The Turing Test asked people to communicate with something or someone that they could not see. The people engaged in the communication were then asked identify whether they were talking to a machine or a human.

If the test subjects thought themselves to be conversing with a human when they were really engaged with a machine, then the computer was thought to have intelligence. This test is inherently flawed. The test only determined the similarity to human responses, but are humans the only creatures to have a mind. Most people would agree that animals have minds but a dog would give a different response than a human so the accuracy of the test is impossible to gauge. Another test of computer intelligence was the chess match of Gary Kasparov vs. Deep Blue, IBM's supercomputer in 1996.

Kasparov beat the computer, 4 games to 2, but it raised a serious question... since chess is considered the ultimate 'thinking' game and the computer beat the undisputed world's best player, is there really any reason to doubt a computer's ability to think? I know many computer people and even some philosophers would argue with me, but I don't see this as proof of a computer's intelligence. I think it proves the computer's amazing capability (it was able to process 200 million potential moves a second) but it still lacked one thing that a computer can never have; intuition and the human eventually beat the computer. I think this is not a case to prove intelligence but rather disprove it. It sounds like a no-brainer- a machine with sheer brute force up against simple human intuition, it shouldn't have even been a competition. The computer should have won all matches, hands down.

There is no way possible that Kasparov was able to process 200 million moves but yet even with the computer's superior capabilities, he still came out victorious. (It should be noted that the rematch in 1997 was considered a draw with Kasparov resigning.) I think that that the answer to the question on whether computers have minds is still a no despite it's amazing capabilities. There is still a debate among many philosophers and scientists on whether animals (highly intelligent ones such as dolphins, primates, dogs and cats) have minds and I think that until this question is answered, no one will be able to definitively show proof of a computer's intelligence.

Bibliography

1. web Retrieved July 17, 20052.
web Retrieved July 17, 2005.