Can a Computer Have a Mind
A new issue has come about since the building of computers. But the idea behind it is not such a new issue, for as long ago as Plato and Aristotle, the idea of a mind was pondered about. With the up-and-coming technology, the idea of artificial intelligence has exploded. It is one that many fiction writers have prospered on. But how far away are they from the truth? Take the story of The Bicentennial Man by Isaac Asimov, written in 1976, when most of the population didn't know what a computer was capable of. The idea of the unknown scared us, a robot that appeared to be just like us, but it was also intriguing, as demonstrated by the story's success. What was it that attracted the population to this story? The reasonable answer lies within the question this paper will attempt to answer. That is, Can a computer have a mind? The answer to this question is an obvious one, but we will examine it anyway, as it needs to be addressed because of all of the popular science-fiction writings. A computer can have a mind, and as you read further into this, you will see that computers are made of the same things we are, they transfer information using the same techniques we do, they are complex enough, and they are aware. This is enough to give
Even in the age of the compact disk, we have already seen the making of a mini disk, a smaller version of a CD that stores just as much information, if not more. Electrical impulses, such as the ones of this computer, allow the letters as I have typed them to appear on the screen and then finally be transferred to the paper you are reading. Examine for a moment if you will, just what is it that causes an image of your first love to appear in a field of wildflowers. So the bacteria got together - literally, and stayed together after many years of evolution and a slug was formed. Think of a cat, either white or black. They are of the same particles that of the biological body as well as in the mechanical body, and they transfer information in the same manner. The biological systems that produce mind are made up of the same particles as the inorganic computers. From his point of view in verifying that only biological systems can be complex enough to have mind, this is true. The Physicist will most definitely agree that these atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The problem with science is that it is objective, you can only learn about it, but you can never truly experience it (DesAutels Lecture 6-16-00). So it is not the fact that computers and humans are made of different things, but in reality, that they are made of the same things that gives the possibility of a computer to have a mind. The example we will be looking at here is used in car computers that are "aware" of how the driver drives. Therefore organic and inorganic are just ways of explaining the same thing. So the question still remains, Can a computer have a mind? It is made up of parts, like the cells that make up a human, and these parts on their own lack mind (like the cogs in a clock. Using this analogy, it can also be said that the computer components are not aware, in the sense that the cells aren't aware, but the computer, a collection of parts, (like the human of cells) can be aware.
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