Thinking Machines: Some Fundamental Confusions

Author: Kearns J.T.

Source: Minds and Machines, Volume 7, Number 2, May 1997 , pp. 269-287(19)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

This paper explores Church's Thesis and related claims made by Turing. Church's Thesis concerns computable numerical functions, while Turing's claims concern both procedures for manipulating uninterpreted marks and machines that generate the results that these procedures would yield. It is argued that Turing's claims are true, and that they support (the truth of) Church's Thesis. It is further argued that the truth of Turing's and Church's Theses has no interesting consequences for human cognition or cognitive abilities. The Theses don't even mean that computers can do as much as people can when it comes to carrying out effective procedures. For carrying out a procedure is a purposive, intentional activity. No actual machine does, or can do, as much.

Keywords: Church's Thesis; Turing machine; effective procedure; effectively computable function

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Department of Philosophy and Center for Cognitive Science, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. 14260, U.S.A. (email: kearns@acsu.buffalo.edu)

Publication date: 1997-05-01