Book Summaries
David Gelernter (What to think about machines that think)
David Gelernter argues that the concept of “machines that think” fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the mind and software.
David Gelernter argues that the concept of “machines that think” fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the mind and software. He uses the example of french fries to illustrate that certain physical states, like being happy, are not computable because they involve a physical object’s response to its environment. He asserts that computers and software can imitate aspects of thinking-about but cannot replicate being, which encompasses sensation, emotion, and mood. Gelernter contends that thinking-about and being define the human mind and that computers exist in a separate universe, incapable of truly replicating being. He concludes that thinking machines cannot exist without both thinking-about and being, challenging the notion of purely computational minds.
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