Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

Computing Machinery and Intelligence 58of machines. It may seem different because it is more difficultto “swallow.” But this really only means that we think it wouldbe less likely that He would consider the circumstances suitablefor conferring a soul. The circumstances in question arediscussed in the rest of this paper. In attempting to constructsuch machines we should not be irreverently usurping His powerof creating souls, any more tan we are in the procreation ofchildren, rather, we are, in either case, instruments of Hiswill providing mansions for the souls that He creates.However, this is mere speculation. I am not very impressedwith theological arguments whatever they may be used to support.Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past.In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, “And thesun stood still . . and hasted not to go down about a wholeday” (Joshua x, 13) and “He laid the foundation of the earth,that it should not move at any time” (Psalm cv. 5) were anadequate refutation of the Copernican theory. With our presentknowledge such an argument appears futile. When that knowledgewas not available it made quite a different impression.2. The “Heads in the Sand” Objection. “The consequences ofmachines thinking would be too dreadful. Let us hope and believethat they cannot do so.This argument is seldom expressed quite so openly as in theform above. But it affects most of us who think about it at all.We like to believe that Man is in some subtle way superior tothe rest of creation. It is best if he can be shown to benecessarily superior, for then there is no danger of him losinghis commanding position. The popularity of the theologicalargument is clearly connected with this feeling. It is likely tobe quite strong in intellectual people, since they value thepower of thinking more highly than others, and are more inclinedto base their belief in the superiority of Man on this power.I do not think this argument is sufficiently substantial torequire refutation. Consolation would be more appropriate:perhaps this should be sought in the transmigration of souls.3. The Mathematical Objection. There are a number ofresults of mathematical logic which can be used to show thatthere are limitations to the powers of discrete state machines.The best known of these results is known as Gödel’s theorem, andshows that in any sufficiently powerful logical systemstatements can be formulated which can neither be proved nordisproved within the system, unless possibly the system itselfis inconsistent. There are other, in some respects similar,results due to Church, Kleene, Roser and Turing. The latterresult is the most convenient to consider, since it refersdirectly to machines, whereas the others can only be used in acomparatively indirect argument: for instance if Gödel’s