Could a machine think?

There are many reasons for saying yes. One of the earliest and deepest reason lay in two important results in computational theory. The first was Church's thesis, which states that every effectively computable function is recursively computable. The second important result was Alan M. Turing's demonstration that any recursively computable function can be computed in finite time by a maximally simple sort of symbol-manipulating machine that has come to be called a universal Turing machine. This machine is guided by a set of recursively applicable rules that are sensitive to the identity, order and arrangement of the elementary symbols it encounters as input. The authors reject the Turing test as a sufficient condition for conscious intelligence. They base their position of the specific behavioral failures of the classical SM machines and on the specific virtues of machines with a more brain-like architecture. These contrasts show that certain computational strategies have vast and decisive advantages over others where typical cognitive tasks are concerned, advantages that are empirically inescapable. Clearly, the brain is making systematic use of these computational advantage. But it need not be the only physical system capable of doing so. Artificial intelligence, in a nonbiological but massively parallel machine,more » remain a compelling and discernible prospect.« less