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Thinking is defined as the thing that separates humans from nonhumans. Computers aren't humans. Therefore, even if computers can perform every task that humans can perform, what the computer is doing is, by definition, not thinking. Also, the question of whether X can think is completely without value.



It's hard to give a more circular argument than that.


It's more or less the standard cynical joke in AI circles, though--- computers aren't intelligent, so when AI succeeds at something, it isn't AI anymore, and moves to some other field instead, so AI never has successes. :)


So maybe the computers will be humans. Was there any thinking involved in writing your comment? I think that anyone would say yes. But if you were a computer (and why you couldn't be just a computer, nothing less than autopsy can convince me), then you'd have to say no. That's strange, and would make word think completely useless.


Ah, yeah. The perils of taking definitions too seriously.




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