Can Machines Think?

Can machines think? This is an extremely hard question to answer and in my opinion I don’t think they can. I feel machines are made to give the appearance that they can think, when this is not actually so. In a way they mimic the human thought process by the way in which they operate. Processes that are similar to the way in which we think are inputted into machines by humans allowing them to reach a suitable outcome or carry out a given procedure, however when following the stages to reach these outcomes machines are not actually thinking, the steps they must go through are automatically there for them, therefore no brain power is needed. This differs to a human’s trail of thought, as at each stage of the thought process reached before a conclusion is made, we have think about how to reach the next stage in order to come to a conclusion, these stages are not automatically installed into a brains like they are in a computer, we have to think about how we can reach them by the use of language, perception, reason and emotion. It is humans that programme computers and machines to carry out various processes in order for them to function, therefore without our intervention a machine would not be able to carry out any sort of process. Plus if a computer was able to think it would be able to perform any procedure it wants, like we as humans can do. If a human wants to ignore somebody they will because they have the choice to, however a computer does not. A machine has no other option but to comply with what you want it to do.

        If a machine was programmed wrongly then we would always receive incorrect information, therefore if they were able to think for themselves surely they would recognise a default in their system and correct the problem. The Internet is available for computers to access on their systems; therefore if a computer was able to think, indisputably it would correct any errors on its system by looking throughout the wide scope of information the Internet provides. As computers cannot think they are unable to do this, therefore this is why they will constantly give wrong information and errors will occur if they are programmed incorrectly.

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        The definition of thinking is as follows: ‘exercise the mind, form ideas; form or have as an idea or opinion or plan.’ From looking at this definition I believe that computers cannot think. Since when does a machine have an opinion, if a computer was able to think surely it would want to express its opinion? A computer is only able to give you the facts that it has stored on its system or on the Internet, this does not prove that it is able to think; just because it provides us with information we do not know. A machine ...

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