Minsky AI magazine fall 1982.pdf
Why People Think
Computers Can’t
Marvin
Minsky
MIT
Cambridge,
PEOPLE
ARE CONVINCED computers cannot think.
That is, really think.
Everyone knows that computers already do many things that no person could do without
“thinking.”
But when computers do such things, most people suspect, that there is only an illusion of thoughtful behavior, and that the machine
MOST
. doesn’t, know what it’s doing
. is only doing what its programmer
. has no feelings. And so on.
told it to
The people who built the first computers were engineers concerned with huge numerical computations: that’s why
So, when computers the things were called computers. first appeared, their designers regarded them as nothing but machines for doing mindless calculations.
Yet even then a fringe of people envisioned what’s now called “Artificial
Intelligence”-or
“AI” for short-because they realized that computers could manipulate not only numbers but also symbols. That meant that computers should be able to go beyond arithmetic, perhaps to imitate the informaCon processes that happen inside minds. In the early 1950’s,
Turing began a Chess program, Oettinger wrote a learning program, Kirsch and Selfridge wrote vision programs, all using the machines that were designed just for arithmetic.
Today, surrounded by so many automatic machines, industrial robots, and the R2-D2’s of Star Wars movies, most people think AI is much more advanced than it is. But still, many “computer experts” don’t believe that machines will
Massachusetts
ever “really think.”
I think those specialists are too used t,o explaining that there’s nothing inside computers but little electric currents. This leads them to believe that there can’t be room left for anything else-like minds, or selves. And there are many other reasons why so many experts still maintain that machines can never be creative, intuitive, or emotional, and will never really think, believe, or understand
Computers Can’t
Marvin
Minsky
MIT
Cambridge,
PEOPLE
ARE CONVINCED computers cannot think.
That is, really think.
Everyone knows that computers already do many things that no person could do without
“thinking.”
But when computers do such things, most people suspect, that there is only an illusion of thoughtful behavior, and that the machine
MOST
. doesn’t, know what it’s doing
. is only doing what its programmer
. has no feelings. And so on.
told it to
The people who built the first computers were engineers concerned with huge numerical computations: that’s why
So, when computers the things were called computers. first appeared, their designers regarded them as nothing but machines for doing mindless calculations.
Yet even then a fringe of people envisioned what’s now called “Artificial
Intelligence”-or
“AI” for short-because they realized that computers could manipulate not only numbers but also symbols. That meant that computers should be able to go beyond arithmetic, perhaps to imitate the informaCon processes that happen inside minds. In the early 1950’s,
Turing began a Chess program, Oettinger wrote a learning program, Kirsch and Selfridge wrote vision programs, all using the machines that were designed just for arithmetic.
Today, surrounded by so many automatic machines, industrial robots, and the R2-D2’s of Star Wars movies, most people think AI is much more advanced than it is. But still, many “computer experts” don’t believe that machines will
Massachusetts
ever “really think.”
I think those specialists are too used t,o explaining that there’s nothing inside computers but little electric currents. This leads them to believe that there can’t be room left for anything else-like minds, or selves. And there are many other reasons why so many experts still maintain that machines can never be creative, intuitive, or emotional, and will never really think, believe, or understand