Can a machine know?

Priyank Punatar Tuesday, 30th October 2007

Thesis:

Unlike humans, machines have pre-programmed and repeatable knowledge.

A machine is “any mechanical or electrical device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of human tasks.”1 Basically, a machine is a human-made system or device made up of fixed and moving parts that perform tasks. In order to ascertain machines’ ability to know it is important to be aware of what it is to know. Knowing is attributed to living things be it plants or animals. It is appropriate to make an analogy between a machine’s competencies to know with that of human beings because humans are superior to all living things in knowledge. What do humans mean when they say they know something? They mean that they have learned some facts about a particular subject. Additionally, they mean that they have an understanding of the relationships, significance and sources of that subject. If that is what knowing is all about, then machines could also have the capacity to know. Nevertheless, comprehension, a human ability, is based on learned facts, interactions, growth, experiences, change, judgments and other active processes. Hence, machines can only know in terms of how they have been programmed and their complexity. Theoretically, most machines do not have the ability to think as they are designed to act upon certain commands.

If we consider knowledge as fact-based and a measure of memory as a result of experience or learning, then we can say that a machine can know. Machines are capable of replicating information that has been stored in their memory, thus, it could be said that machines know the facts and are skilled to utilize them, as in authentication schemes in computerized systems where password input is matched with the password stored in the memory. Facts can be imputed in machines by altering them into a digital form and since knowledge can change on acquirement of new facts, they can be continuously entered into the machines. For instance, if we consider a situation whereby a student is performing a test, when the student identifies the problem which he/she might have come across earlier, the student would claim that he/she knows. Alternatively, if the student does not recollect any valid information that would assist him/her responding the question, he/she would say that he/she does not know. Basically one cannot do anything unless he/she knows how to respond to the situation. When considering a computer as a machine, we can say that, similarly, any information inputted into a computer is experience. With the increase of experience, the computer tends to search through various, different scenarios, then elect the best option.

Humans tend to use diverse areas of knowledge to make a sensible prediction that can be proven over time. For example, if we reflect on the incident of black holes. Although it is unproven that they do exist, we, humans, assume that they are present from observing images of distant stars. We are also extracting materials from them by large, super-gravitational forces and trying to prove black holes’ existence through Einstein’s gravitation relativity.

“Black holes are still an unproven enigma, but their presence could

lead to the discovery of even more elusive theory-wormholes.

……black holes are not known for ...