Hunter Somerville

Phil 111
Daniel Dennett, Can Machines Think?
In this article Dennett explores his argument about the Turing Test about whether
computers can think.

Dennett explains that the Turing Test has been misjudged and

misguided for the wrong reasons when answering the question about thinking computers. He
says there are many criticisms of the test and that they are not accurate. Overall, he believes
that the Turing Test is a great test for computers. He says that the variations of the test that
have been produced do not give us accurate results of a computers abilities and they should
not be used. He says that computers can have very high levels of intelligence but that does not
necessarily translate into thinking capabilities. He says that computers do think when they
process information, but the thinking that the Turing Test is looking for is the ability to
understand the world and the complex relationships that are everywhere. He also explains that
computers are only as intelligent as the human that has programmed them. When they are
being programmed they are done so with minimal definitions in their vocabulary and that
relationships between two or more similar words are not well established. This minimizes the
computers ability to correlate concepts of real world thinking. He says that he doesnt see a
computer that can have all these capabilities being built in the near future. One reason is that
it is cost prohibitive and extremely time consuming to do. With all this being said and taking
into account all the criticisms, Dennett does believe the Turing Test can determine if a machine
can think. He says if the test is administered correctly, we can test the machine and establish
its thinking capabilities. This test is also useful in helping to build better thinking machines.