Machines that think...

Wade Riddick (riddick@MAIL.LA.UTEXAS.EDU)
Thu, 15 May 1997 22:08:04 -0500

Here's a thought experiment worthy of Walker Percy.

Edupage recently reported the following (you've probably seen it
elsewhere):

>MACHINES THAT THINK AND MACHINES THAT FLY
>On the issue of whether the chess-playing computer that beat world champion
>Garry Kasparov can "really think," Yale computer science professor Drew
>McDermott says: "Saying that Deep Blue doesn't really think is like saying
>an airplane doesn't really fly because it doesn't flap its wings." (New
>York Times 14 May 97)

What would Walker Percy say about the CS professor? I'm reminded of an
item from the opening pop quiz in _Lost in the Cosmos_ - something about
an astronomer who can pinpoint stars billions of miles away but whose
marriage is on the rocks.

Comments?