Can Machines Think

The following sample essay on “Can Machines Think”: discussion on the machine, artificial intelligence and new prototype of Siri (IOS voice comander).

The new prototype of Siri (IOS voice commander) for 2017 will be the most advance voice commander ever made. It will offer features such as a deep reasoning for unlimited situations, continuous adaptation to different behavior which gives it the ability to react as a human may do on different situations, and finally the most important it is programmed to react to an infinity of emotions.

The new version of Siri offers the sensation of being interacting with another person. However, could it be considered a person? Its behavior is just like the behavior of a person so why not consider Siri as it.

John Locke may argue that it is not a person. Locke thinks a “person is a thinking intelligent being which is able to recognize itself as itself” (page 2). According to Locke, such intelligent being must be able to perceive that it is thinking in order to be considered as a person.

It means that such being should be conscious and be able to recognize as itself through time even when physical characteristics change. In the case of Siri, it does not possess own memories. Its actions and behavior are based on the programs that some else put into it. Moreover, Siri’s perception is functionally just for external factors. That means that, it cannot perceive its own action. It just acts according to a software that has been made up from someone else.

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Since it does not have own perception and memories, it is not a person.

Can Machines Think Paper

In contrast, Alan Turing may argue the prototype of Siri should be considered as a person. Even though he shares with Locke the basic concept that a person is thinking thing, he disagrees with Locke’s solipsistic point of view. Instead, Turing believe that the only way how we can prove that something is thinking is by its behavior. According to Turing, it is impossible to follow the high standards of self-perception because it just prove the ability to think to the individual itself.