Can machines think?

Native language: Azerbaijan

Academic translation: Rana Osmanova & Mahammadali Abaszadeh

Author: Mahammadali Abaszadeh

This article is the author’s first academic study on the quaternary collection of articles based on contextual fundamentals.

Firstly, let’s look at the connection between the formation of the concept of intelligence in philosophy and intellectual history and dualism in logic.

Approach to the concept of intelligence and the possibility of a device being intellectual:

According to Descartes’ philosophy, devices cannot transfer and interpret information by connecting words and phrases like a human being, based on two main tools.

The second philosophy suggests that devices cannot put words and phrases in order even if they had human reflexes. If they could, the only way for a device to realize it would be to carry out this process autonomously but not consciously. Only the mind can connect the signs, as it has orientational features. In the end, the intended result would be the meaning that the formed word or phrase contains. Each language has an intelligent recursive ability and can describe each situation with a phrase. It can recursively create words and meanings by combining different signs and letters. However, according to the philosophy, if a device decides and interprets that decision in one situation, the efficiency will not be the same in another situation. As it has been mentioned before, low efficiency can be observed in accordance with the autonomous norm. This point is accepted as the first thesis of the philosophy’s study on devices imitating human beings. It’s precisely based on this that mechanical reasons, which E. Kant indicated as a principal tool for the creation of types of beings and thus, directly, the formation of intelligence, are accepted as the second thesis.

Opposite thesis 1. Descartes’ doubts about the ability of devices to transfer information as human beings do in his first main tool can be argued by the opposite thesis that two robots, which are completely isolated from their environment, create a formal language to communicate with each other.

Opposite thesis 2. If the concept of intelligence is accepted as the sum of characteristics acquired by a living being during adaptation to the environment, therefore, without going beyond the concept of mechanical causes, the conclusion can be drawn that devices can also have intelligence.

The development of electronic calculating machines would be assessed according to their previous generation. The direct evaluation of the thinking ability of a device depends on the selected model. Taking into consideration that the concept of thinking belongs to humans, the comparison model would be human intelligence while questioning whether machines can think. It can be accepted as the third thesis of the study.

Opposite thesis 3. If the subject for grading and evaluating device intelligence is human intelligence, consequently, human intelligence should be expected to make “perfect” and impeccable decisions. However, human intelligence can misapprehend, and therefore, the basis for evaluating device intelligence wouldn’t be appropriately selected. We can imagine that a device imitates human intelligence and thinks like a human being, but we will encounter paradoxes about the importance of a device that cannot make the right decisions.

The first part of the article is dedicated to the memory of the distinguished scientist Ramin Mahmudzade….