Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Can a machine know

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Can a machine know? Seun Fashoranti Mr. Rodney TOK June 2007 Halifax Grammar School Is it possible for a machine to possess knowledge? To answer such a question two things must be known, what is the definition of a machine, can and knowledge? The scientific definition of a machine is a device that transmits or alters energy. A machine can be seen as a tool that performs commands. There are simple machines such as pulleys and levers and complex machines such as computers and robots. Can is defined as the ability to do things. Knowledge is defined as justified true belief. In this essay I will attempt to find out if a machine can truly have justified belief. I believe that humans have always been curious about how things work, which has allowed us to make such advances to in both science and technology. With movies such as The Matrix and I-Robot people have begun to wonder if a machine can have true knowledge. It has been argued that a machine does not know anything simply because it can not break away from its commands. A machine such as a computer, which can be found in business, homes and schools, only has memory and it performs its commands in which we give it. ...read more.

Middle

My Window's movie maker also kept on freezing and slowing down at the most inopportune time. A car, which is a machine because it follows the laws of physics and the motor of the car, gives out energy. A car is merely a machine that is designed to do a certain task. Newer cars, such as a Jeep Liberty can collect data from pressure and things such as weight, or even if you have your seatbelt on or not, and it will adjust to make changes such as moving your seat back automatically for you or continuously beeping until you put your seatbelt on. The Jeep Liberty also has an "Electronic Roll Mitigation (ERM) senses when a rollover may occur and applies braking." 3 I was recently interested to read an article on BBC about how scientists have some how managed to stimulate half a mousse brain on a super computer, which makes me wonder if it is possible to stimulate thought, something that many people believe is a key to knowing. Computers these days store human knowledge, they do not criticize it, and they are just processors with memory. They can not think that is to say they can not reason or reflect on anything, so it is possible that they can never truly know. ...read more.

Conclusion

Another question could be asked to determine whether a machine can know, if a scientist or a research were to create a functioning artificial brain, with all the neurons and synapses, would it still be considered a brain. Well yes since it can do all the same things a human brain can do which means it will be able to copy and learn from humans the same way a human baby does. Babies are a blank slate, tabula rasa, which means except for some innate abilities that they have they know nothing. And as soon as they are born they immediately start to gain knowledge through empirical and rational thinking. It seems then that, a machine which we have today can not actually know anything, however it has been seen that with twenty first century technology then a machine has begun have certain characteristics of knowing, but since it can not think it clearly has no way of knowing. Machine's are just pre-programmed units (as of right now) that react in a particular way, due to circumstance or a command. However that is not to say that a machine can never know, with constant breakthroughs in technology it is quite possible that a machine such as a robot or a computer will be able to think, and therefore it will be able to know. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge essays

  1. How do I know what is right and what is wrong?

    Through church, I became acquainted with the moral philosophy of "divine command". In Sunday school, I learned about the Ten Commandments and my very first morals of what is right and what is wrong. I learned that I should always honour my parents, never steal and murder, and always love God.

  2. In what sense, if any, can a machine be said to know something? How ...

    The reasoning required to construct a program to make sense of population data came from the people who designed the program. In a sense, the machine only takes that reasoning and extends it over more data than the people themselves could process.

  1. TOK Essay on "The Matrix".

    our actual reality that I was unaware of existed, I would decide to explore the reality instead of falsity because ignorance of a fact does not result in genuine happiness. Those thoughts generally come knocking back. I would find the truth therefore.

  2. Human Brain is no more than a highly complex computer. Discuss

    capable of calculating 200 million positions per second[4], whereas the human brain is not physically capable of doing such calculations in such a small amount of time. The human brain, in this case Kasparov?s brain at best, is able to evaluate three positions in a second.

  1. Can a machine know?

    to understand and replicate, as it is likely to be based on a subconscious mix of memory, experience, environmental factors and perception of the individual. Machines do understand the human minds. They may be logically superior to humans in ares where there is a limited set or instructions for example, the simple yet mind-challenging game of chess.

  2. Can a Machine Know? TOK essay.

    The key to the argument that a machine possesses knowledge to carry out its intended task is the assumption that the machine components when working in synch somehow transforms into the knowledge of the machine, as they together makes the machine work.

  1. We want to investigate on whether the development of computer technology brings more positive ...

    Instead, parents should educate kids the right attitude when using the Internet, and communicate with their children more often in order to understand them, not just by reading what they type in emails, Facebook posts, or chat conversations. Moreover, the use of Internet banking and online shopping is becoming more and more commonplace.

  2. This essay will attempt to determine whether a point or argument made to an ...

    His name repeatedly became the brand, any kind of brand he would enter into a contract with, and his name and persona became synonymous with discipline and moral and ethical high grounds.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work