Philosophy Corner: Trapped in a Chinese Room with Alan Turing

A reader writes and asks:

Do you think that the biggest barrier to building artificial intelligence is that we’ll never be able to build a computer program that can dynamically realize final causes?

Do you think this would actually be impossible?

If it would remain impossible, would this then equal proof that humans have souls?

(feel free to use this for a blog post)

Thanks, I will.

Before answering the question, ” Do you think that the biggest barrier to building artificial intelligence is that we’ll never be able to build a computer program that can dynamically realize final causes? ” surely we should answer the question, “Can anyone build a computer program that can realize anything?”

A computer program is not a thing, it is a set of instructions telling a person how to push buttons to push electrons to push one group of material things that have no innate meaning from one shape into another shape, also which has no innate meaning.

A second person, looking at the shape with the help of an instrument called a monitor screen will ascribe or attribute to it some anthropomorphic meaning to it, or, if he is wise, to the joint actions of the programmers and builders.

The concept “realize” has meaning only in the context of living and self-aware beings, that is, being which have a point of view of their own. Computers and instructions given to people who manipulate the parts of a computer do not have life, do not have awareness, do not have a viewpoint.

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