Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
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How Computers Think
Most people think computers will never be able to think. That is,
really think. Not now or ever. To be sure, most people also agree that
computers can do many things that a person would have to be thinking
to do. Then how could a machine seem to think but not actually
think? Well, setting aside the question of what thinking actually is, I
think that most of us would answer that by saying that in these cases,
what the computer is doing is merely a superficial imitation of human
intelligence. It has been designed to obey certain simple commands, and
then it has been provided with programs composed of those commands.
Because of this, the computer has to obey those commands, but without
any idea of what is happening.
Indeed, when computers first appeared, most of their designers intended
them for nothing only to do huge, mindless computations. That is why
the things were called “computers”. Yet even then, a few pioneers—
especially Alan Turing—envisioned what is now called “Artificial
Intelligence”—or “AI”. They saw that computers might possibly go be-
yond arithmetic, and maybe imitate the processes that go on inside
human brains.
Today, with robots everywhere in industry and movie films, most people
think AI has gone much further than it has. Yet still, “computer experts”
say machines will never really think. If so, how could they be so smart,
and yet so dumb?
—Marvin Minsky (in 1982) [1]
This chapter describes the key fundamental processes of thought,
as they are implemented by Artificial Intelligence methods: log-
ical reasoning, general problem solving, planning, reasoning on
the basis of common sense or by the use of precedents, learning, discov-
ery, invention and acquiring and using expert knowledge to solve prob-
lems within a specific domain such as medical diagnosis. All of these
processes, normally associated with human intelligence, can today be
carried out by a computer system and will, as the twenty-first century
unfolds, become integral aspects of the mental capabilities of robots.
