Michael Philips on the question of whether computers can think.
http://philosophynow.org/issues/39/Do_C ... ave_Syntax
Do Computers Have Syntax?
-
chaz wyman
- Posts: 5304
- Joined: Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:31 pm
Re: Do Computers Have Syntax?
Its an odd way to head a paper on computers having intelligence.
Many person's first experience of the word "syntax', is after they type in a error into a computer program - a line that does not make sense and the computer responds with "Syntax error.."
In fact at least on definition of the word does not imply intelligence at all. e.g. The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Leaving out or adding a space can be enough to throw out a piece of computer code, as syntactically unintelligible.
Obviously when we ignore grammatical rules it is easy enough for us to spot them and ignore them wereittotypealonglistofwordsandnotusethespacethereisagoodchancethatyoucouldstillunderstandwhatiamtryingtosay.
However a computer would simply respond with syntax error or dump the string of words.
i fiw eretoad dspac estom ys enteanc eandm isspel lsever alwor dsthe nyo umigh tsti llb eabl letog etth egist
not so easy - but you'd see it if you deleted the spaces!
Once again the computer would be struck dumb, but would try to make out each of the strings between the spaces.
But would it not simply be a case of getting the computer to have enough rules to figure this stuff out?
Afterall a word processor can recognise poor spellings and grammar.
At the moment it can't make the right choices, as they come with an appreciation of the context.
So, a cumbuter culd point to badd speelkings in this sontence, but I cannot see how you cold progarems it to make the roght choices.
Take "cumbuter". What sor of rule would you write for the PC to choose between computer, cumber and cucumber?
For the word 'culd" how would your rules make a choice between the 17 possible choices of the spell chacker?
And the use of the word 'cold" did not even make the spell checker flag anything as wrong.
Just for fun MS Word thinks the sentence is grammatically correct, and found 5 alternatives for 'cumbuter'
None of this proves that the computer cannot think. It does prove that the computer cannot relate its rules to a real-life or humanly understood context. But then its not human and cannot possibly share that experience, just like a man who cannot speak Chinese.
Many person's first experience of the word "syntax', is after they type in a error into a computer program - a line that does not make sense and the computer responds with "Syntax error.."
In fact at least on definition of the word does not imply intelligence at all. e.g. The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language. Leaving out or adding a space can be enough to throw out a piece of computer code, as syntactically unintelligible.
Obviously when we ignore grammatical rules it is easy enough for us to spot them and ignore them wereittotypealonglistofwordsandnotusethespacethereisagoodchancethatyoucouldstillunderstandwhatiamtryingtosay.
However a computer would simply respond with syntax error or dump the string of words.
i fiw eretoad dspac estom ys enteanc eandm isspel lsever alwor dsthe nyo umigh tsti llb eabl letog etth egist
not so easy - but you'd see it if you deleted the spaces!
Once again the computer would be struck dumb, but would try to make out each of the strings between the spaces.
But would it not simply be a case of getting the computer to have enough rules to figure this stuff out?
Afterall a word processor can recognise poor spellings and grammar.
At the moment it can't make the right choices, as they come with an appreciation of the context.
So, a cumbuter culd point to badd speelkings in this sontence, but I cannot see how you cold progarems it to make the roght choices.
Take "cumbuter". What sor of rule would you write for the PC to choose between computer, cumber and cucumber?
For the word 'culd" how would your rules make a choice between the 17 possible choices of the spell chacker?
And the use of the word 'cold" did not even make the spell checker flag anything as wrong.
Just for fun MS Word thinks the sentence is grammatically correct, and found 5 alternatives for 'cumbuter'
None of this proves that the computer cannot think. It does prove that the computer cannot relate its rules to a real-life or humanly understood context. But then its not human and cannot possibly share that experience, just like a man who cannot speak Chinese.