Tok : Can a Machine Know?
The definition of knowledge is under constant and ever-lasting debated due to its impalpable nature. However, in general, it is agreed that “Knowledge acquisition involves complex processes: perception, learning, communication, association and .” The Oxford English Dictionary defines knowledge to be “(i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.” Overwhelming advances in technology have led people to contemplate weather machines can themselves gain knowledge, a property once only attributed to the human conscious. A machine is defined to be “A device consisting of fixed and moving parts that modifies mechanical energy and transmits it in a more useful form.” Arguments and debates around this question are numerous and well supported and touch realms of psychology, philosophy, religion and others.
Many claim that machines cannot know due to their limitations. It’s claimed that a machine lacks the above mentioned requirements of knowing (learning, reasoning, etc…). Reason, it is believed, is the most essential part of gaining knowledge, since it is the attribute that allows people to construct the schemas that are required in order to store and make sense of information. Nietzsche claims it to be one of the most crucial differences between humans and all other things (the ability to creating schemas and meanings from abstract things). Also another quota machines fail to meet is awareness. Awareness requires a conscious, something only human beings possess. High-Tech machines are claimed to be able to learn, as they interpret and realize patterns; however, arguers say that they are pre-programmed to realize a certain, limited amount of patterns, meaning they aren’t actually learning, growing, and changing, but only applying orders and commands. Machines, even the most high-tech equipment, require a consistent pattern to fully comprehend and anticipate future actions. Human beings are capable of spontaneous knowledge, arising from practically nothing (example intuition). Knowledge with human beings is also changeable and flexible according to perception, something a machine lacks and is deprived of having. Also, with the argument of computers being able to know, we must understand how it functions. Computers and similar technologies execute arithmetic calculations (which are quite basic, simple, and repetitive) in order to perform and display pre-programmed or recently applied commands. These calculative methods are also instilled by humans (who determine what and what computers cannot know). This means they’re limited, based on previous knowledge, cannot acquire new knowledge, cannot reason qualitatively, and only performs tasks (against knowing consciously).
