ME:
>Can computers think?
BK:
>I think it depends on what we mean by thought. If thought is merely data processing, functional data processing that enables the performance of some function, some activity that's useful I think definitely computers, certainly, can think in a sense that they can process data, take decisions. And we are increasingly being confronted with the effectiveness of computers in doing precisely that, processing more data than we can, and arriving at uncannily intelligent, so to say, solutions to the problems they are posed with. So, from that perspective, I think artificial intelligence is not only a possibility it's a reality.
BK:
>Now, if what we mean by thought is the content of consciousness, if what we mean by it is whether there is something, it is like to have a thought, something it feels like to have a thought in and of itself, is thought a sign of conscious inner life, private conscious inner life. If this is how we define thought, then I would say with a very, very high degree of confidence, as a philosopher of mind, and as a computer engineer who has worked for years on artificial intelligence, that computers cannot think in that sense.
BK:
>Computers are just tools. I know as a computer engineer, that's what I do with transistors, billions of transistors, I could do with water pipes, water and pressure valves. It would probably be something the
size of the Earth, but there would be nothing more to it than water pipes, water and pressure valves. And I don't think water pipes, water and pressure valves are conscious in and of themselves. They are just material arrangements that process data and perform functions, but there is nothing it's like to be an intelligent computer, I would say. Computers just simulate conscious inner life. They are not conscious in and of themselves anymore than a system of water pipes is conscious in and of itself.
