Hofstadter, Dennett - The Mind's I

5Douglas R. HofstadterThe Turing test:A Coffeehouse ConversationPARTICIPANTSChris, a physics student, Pat, a biology student, and Sandy, a philosophy student.CHRIS: Sandy, I want to thank you for suggesting that I read Alan Turing’s article“Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” It’s a wonderful piece and it certainly mademe think – and think about my thinking.SANDY: Glad to hear it. Are you still as much of a skeptic about artificial intelligence asyou used to be?CHRIS: You’ve got me wrong. I’m not against artificial intelligence. I think it’swonderful stuff – perhaps a little crazy, but why not? I simply am convinced that you AIadvocates have far underestimated the human mind and that there are things a computerwill never, ever be able to do. For instance, can you imagine a computer writing a Proustnovel? The richness of imagination and complexity of the characters. . . .SANDY: Rome wasn’t built in a day.This selection appeared previously as “Metamagical Themas. A Coffeehouse conversation on theTuring test to determine if a machine can think.” In Scientific American, May 1981 pp. 15-36