Andrew Chia
TOK Class assignment – 1
Can a Machine know?
Machines, as the world is currently undergoing modernization, are becoming more advanced and can be looked upon as a substitute for manpower. Is a machine capable of knowing? This question has arisen an important topic in modern epistemology. Machines, in general, are commonly defined as a device that performs a certain work or task. But most commonly in the case of machines, the understanding of the process of correctly executing the task being performed can also serve as a criterion for knowledge. Based on the reasoning obtained from these definitions, it is possible to say that machines do have the skills and ability to know.
While performing a task, a machine transforms energy into useful work or vice versa. Every single machine has this principle applied to them. An argument can always arise from the fact that due to the design or the machine, where the components of it work together to transform energy into work, it simply must have the required skills to carry out the given task. The knowledge may be situational; a knife cannot be used to pound nails into the wall, due to its design which was meant for a different task. But no matter what the task is, a machine must have certain knowledge. To show an example from that point, Ahmad is a native Malay speaker and can translate a malay text to English easily whereas Muthu, who only speaks Tamil, cannot simply because Ahmad possess the knowledge of translating between the languages as he knows them both, but Muthu does not.