Artificial Intelligence and Angelology
ABSTRACT: Recently, as I have become more computer-literate, I have noticed some interesting parallels between computer mechanisms and Aquinas’ metaphysics of angelic faculties. The present essay expands on some of the analogies which Aquinas himself, though no proponent of AI theory, might have found interesting.
One of the philosophy newsgroups on the Internet is entitled "comp.ai.philosophy." This group features constant variations on questions such as: how close can artificial intelligence (particularly computers) approximate to human consciousness? is free will reducible to neurological mechanisms? and so forth. From my unscientific sampling, I would estimate that the clientele of this newsgroup is about evenly split between those who tend towards a reductive materialism, and those who maintain that consciousness or some element in human consciousness is not reducible to neural structures or functions. So the classical "Hobbes vs. Berkeley" debate continues on into the twenty-first millennium.
One of the problems facing those who theorize about the independence and irreducibility of consciousness is the fact that it is difficult to conceptualize the essence of consciousness, as distinct from the sensations, feelings, etc. that are often associated with consciousness. Here we are definitely getting into abstract metaphysics. Medieval philosophers such as Aquinas, Duns Scotus and Suarez faced up to this challenge with a little help from Christian revelation, by speculating about the characteristics and functions of angels or "separate substances," who would presumably exemplify consciousness in its "pure" state, without any distracting admixtures. In this paper, I would like to take a look in particular at Aquinas' theory of separate substances. With this theory, we bypass the old question of the reducibility or irreducibility of consciousness to its material conditions, and we also find, in my opinion, some interesting analogies to contemporary computer technology. It would be too much to hope that these analogies, even if substantial, would instigate a revival of interest in Angelology among technophiles. But those interested in the metaphysics of the mind-body problem may find them suggestive:
Microprocessors and Angelic Self-possession: The microprocessors of today's computers are integrated circuits which contain the CPU on a single chip. The latest developments, with variable clock speeds now often exceeding 200 MHz, include Intell's Pentium chip, the IBM/Apple/Motorola PowerPC chip, as well as chips from Cyrix and AMD. The CPU chip is the heart of the computer; only memory and input-output devices have to be added. A small fan might be added on top of the fastest chips to cool them down, but in the chip itself there are no moving parts, no complex gaps between the movement being imparted and that which imparts the movement.
Searle's argument delineates what he believes to be the invalidity of the computational paradigm's and artificial intelligence's (AI) view of the human mind. He first distinguishes between strong and weak AI. Searle finds weak AI as a perfectly acceptable investigation in that it uses the computer as a strong tool for studying the mind. This in effect does not observe or formulate any contentions as to the operation of the mind, but is used as another psychological, investigative mechanism. In contrast, strong AI states that the computer can be created so that it actually is the mind. We must first describe what exactly this entails. In order to be the mind, the computer must be able to not only understand, but to have cognitive states. Also, the programs by which the computer operates are the focus of the computational paradigm, and these are the explanations of the mental states. Searle's argument is against the claims of Shank and other computationalists who have created SHRDLU and ELIZA, that their computer programs can (1) be ascribe...
John Searle’s Chinese room argument from his work “Minds, Brains, and Programs” was a thought experiment against the premises of strong Artificial Intelligence (AI). The premises of conclude that something is of the strong AI nature if it can understand and it can explain how human understanding works. I will argue that the Chinese room argument successfully disproves the conclusion of strong AI, however, it does not provide an explanation of what understanding is which becomes problematic when creating a distinction between humans and machines.
This poem is structured within eight stanzas, the first seven stanzas contain four lines within each stanza, however,the last stanza contains fifteen lines, with major emphasis on, “I rise”. The last fifteen lines may have been used to conclude the poem at the end, for one last time show the audience her head held up high. During the poem, the tone throughout is positive and negative, although you may hear the strength and passion in her voice about overcoming these problems, she still presents anger. This allows the reader to experience in sections how Angelou really felt.
Soldiers sown from dragon teeth, golden robots built by Hephaestus, and three-legged tables that could move under their own power - the Greeks were the first to cross the divide between machine and human. Although the history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) began with these myths and speculations, it is becoming a part of everyday life. How did it evolve so quickly, and what are its implications for the future?
Through cognitive science, computer science, and psychology there has been an underlying question as to what qualifies for intelligent action. Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon have proposed that a physical symbol system has the necessary and sufficient means for intelligent action. This is a view shared by many other notable figures from a variety of disciplines.
With each passing day, humans make great advancements in the world of technology. One of these advancements is the use of “artificial intelligence,” or computer systems that have the capability of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence to accomplish. The various uses of “artificial intelligence” causes people to form opinions on it as a whole, often leading to debates on the topic. Authors like Susan Bennett, Neil Harbisson, Joi Ito, Garry Kasparov, Shauna Mei, Nnedi Ohorafor, and Faith Popcorn, voice their various perspectives on the matter. In this debate, all seven writers agree that “artificial intelligence” does in fact exist. Using their own definitions, the last argument each writer is trying to make is whether
Crevier, D. (1999). AI: The tumultuous history of the search for Artificial Intelligence. Basic Books: New York.
While the great philosophical distinction between mind and body in western thought can be traced to the Greeks, it is to the influential work of René Descartes, French mathematician, philosopher, and physiologist, that we owe the first systematic account of the mind/body relationship. As the 19th century progressed, the problem of the relationship of mind to brain became ever more pressing.
By using Vygotsky’s theory, educators are able to realize what a child is able to do with assistance and they can help a child develop the skills on their own. They are engaged in the discovery process, but they are receiving guidance from a more knowledgeable source.
The sociocultural theory was developed by a theorist named Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky was born in 1896 and was from the former Soviet Union. He was a psychologist who had an abundance of ideas and put them into many theories and writings. Although Vygotsky died from tuberculosis at the young age of thirty-eight, his most prominent work was done in a short period of ten years. When he died in 1934, the Soviet Union held most of his work and it was not until about 1960 that his work was translated into English. Currently in the education field, Vygotsky’s main work on the sociocultural theory is getting a lot of attention.
Fandom is a term that refers to a subculture that consists of fans who share a feeling of camaraderie with other fans who share a common interest. Those that consider themselves to be part of a fandom are typically interested in even minor details of those interests, spend a large amount of their time on their interest and are usually members of social media sites that allow them to discuss this interest in detail. This is what differentiates them from those who only show a casual interest.
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Let me begin with one of the major theories concerning the philosophy of artificial intelligence: The Church-Turing thesis. The Church-Turing thesis is the brainchild of Alan Turing and Alonzo Church. It concerns the concepts of “effective” and “mechanical” in logic and mathematics. Both Turing and Church reached the hypothesis independently and in different forms. But both forms confront similar issues and the general form is known as the ‘Church-Turing thesis’. In general, the thesis asserts that a machine can execute all processes that are ‘mechanical’[1]. Clearly, there is some ambiguity in this statement. What is meant by mechanical? What is meant by machine?
Duchesne, S., McMaugh, A. Bochner, S, and Krause, K. (2013) Educational Psychology for Learning and Teaching. 4th Edition. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.
The general objective of the study is to assess the effects of mobile banking on the prospects of the banking industry