Can a Computer Think?

Alan Turing asked that question in 1950 and proposed a test to determine if a computer could think. Turing, a mathematician and a pioneer in computer science, proposed that it would someday be possible for a sufficiently advanced computer to think and to have some form of consciousness. How would we know if a computer was conscious? Turing suggested that if a computer and a human being were hidden behind a screen, and another human being were given the task of interrogating each of them, it w...