Can Machines Think?

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Searle poses the question: can machines think?, giving rise to many counter arguments and questions of what exactly defines a machine or a thought. Turing replies to the Chinese Room argument in various ways, but his best argument is The Argument from Consciousness, which concludes that a machine could never possibly have thoughts due to its lack of feelings and emotions. Differing greatly from a human thought, which stems from the brain, a machine does not know that it is having so-called thoughts. Although it can make computations and can come up with answers on the spot, even being spontaneous like a human, it does actually “feel oneself thinking” or control what it “thinks.” This being said, Turing’s argument is very valid since a thought can be defined as having an opinion or an intention, expressed through the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Although this reply to the Chinese Room argument is justified since machines do not actually know that they are thinking, it is hard to prove that machines cannot think for themselves. Based on the solipsist view, no one will ever know that anyone else is thinking, thus no one will ever know for certain whether or not a machine will actually have thoughts. All of Turing’s arguments have flaws, but this argument is the best since it uses the emotion aspects to thoughts. Thoughts of humans are based on feelings, emotions, and beliefs, so it lines up with the argument that machines…