Do Computers Have the Same Mind Capacity of Humans?

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Throughout the centuries Philosophers and Scientists have argued over the idea of computers having a mind or a “consciousness,” can a computer or a machine truly grasp the meaning of what it knows or is that particular computer only going off what is programmed within it’s hard drive? In some aspect we can compare the mind to that of a hard drive of a machine. The brain is merely a tissue that is activated by physical processes, which we know as intelligence and emotion. The same goes for a computer, its main component or “brain” is ran by multiple processes reacting to a specific situation leading to a particular outcome. However, can a machine react in such a way to have emotion, perceive and understand like that of a human mind and have a consciousness? Philosophers have come up with a variety of tests in hopes to solve this never-ending argument. Alan Turing developed the Turing Test or Imitation Game, which assessed intelligence through conversation. John Turing come to question, “Can computers imitate the actions of the mind?,” rather than, “Do computers actually have a mind?” If computers are able to communicate with a human through a typical conversation without being identified as a computer, then we’re to assume computers have a mind and are able to comprehend and respond. The computer must survive interrogation by a person whom is trying to guess which opponent is a machine and which is a human being. The interrogator must identify the machine within five minutes of conversation (Perry 285-286). In the several years of conducting the Loebner Prize Competition, a competition in which students compete in making a program capable of fooling the interrogator, no computer program has been successful. John Searle’s “Chinese Room” illustrates how we can doubt that machines actually can have a mind or understanding of what they output from what is input. In

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