Can Computers Think?

[Protector one]

Originally Posted by Siberianhusky89

I've read that computers can't comprehend the Words that are displayed on a screen, they just display them and such, so they don't actually understand^^

No you have a valid point there. To get a computer to 'understand' what it is doing on, you'd need to implement a different type of intelligence altogether. I'm pretty sure this is something that has never been even tried before, and for good reason.
Note that if we ever get to this level of AI (I think it could be refferred to as 'technological singularity'), SkyNet becomes a true possibility. And I'm totally serial here.

[Ezion]

Physically, silicon based AI has the potential to think at the same level of complexity as humans.

There is nothing mystical about human thought- it's a series of predictable electrical and biochemical reactions that have been gradually programmed over a long period of time.

Unless you started introduing biological elements into a computer, it could not physically experience the biochemical reactions that an organic life-form does, but could simulate them.

Conceivably one could introduce a physical simulation for many of the physical elements of the human body and a computer could gather data based on the physical simulation, but software simulation would be much less resource-intensive.

Make no mistake- a computer could do anything a human can, but not with our modern technology. You would need far faster computers and some extremely advanced code, but if we're just speculating then it is certainly possible.

(If you believe in some mystical element that takes place in human thought, disregard the above. If you adhere to deterministic/fatalistic philosophies, then you probably already knew all of this.)

[Protector one]

That's an excellent view on it, Ezion. The only thing I partly disagree with, is:

a computer could do anything a human can, but not with our modern technology.

I'm almost convinced contemporary technology could do everything a human could. They can't do it all at the same time however, and many of our implementations aren't as advanced yet as their human counterparts.

[Gshonk]

Originally Posted by Ezion

There is nothing mystical about human thought- it's a series of predictable electrical and biochemical reactions that have been gradually programmed over a long period of time.

I disagree with this and it has nothing to do with mystical thought and everything to do with the irrationality of the human mind. The thing with a computer that is programmed is it will always pick the best solution and make logical sense, a human will not necessarily do that.

Also while maybe we could model a computer off of a male mind there is no way we could do a female

[Ezion]

Originally Posted by Protector one

I'm almost convinced contemporary technology could do everything a human could. They can't do it all at the same time however, and many of our implementations aren't as advanced yet as their human counterparts.

I agree that robots could just about anything a human could, but it would be pre-programmed and designed for a specific purpose. As far as I know, nobody has developed code that can learn diverse physical behaviors and manipulate hardware that has approximately the same functionality and versatility as the human body.

Originally Posted by Gshonk

I disagree with this and it has nothing to do with mystical thought and everything to do with the irrationality of the human mind. The thing with a computer that is programmed is it will always pick the best solution and make logical sense, a human will not necessarily do that.

The "irrationality" of the human mind isn't random. Thoughts are influenced by the physical state of your body (for instance, when angry your body releases chemicals that influence your body and mind). It can be modeled, though the complexity of such a model is far beyond our understanding right now.


The OP's question was "can computers (as they are now) think?" Someone already answered that question; it depends on your definition of "think".

As computers become increasingly complex and we develop more sophisticated models of human behavior, there will be few definitions of "think" that computers cannot do. Eventually, the only definitions of "think" that computers will not be able to do is those that include a mystical element, such as the concept of a human soul.