Talk by Nicholas Agar
Can computers think?
Info about event
Time
Location
Aarhus University, Denmark
In addition to his talk at the Truly Human? seminar, Nicholas Agar will give a lecture at Aarhus University on October 29. The lecture is open for all, and no registration is needed.
Nicholas Agar (Wellington, NZ), Monday 29th Oct., 11-13. Building 1453, room 229.
Exploring a practical interest in computers with minds
This paper explores a practical interest in artificial intelligence. I approach this practical interest by considering our credences or degrees of belief in the proposition that computers can think. I describe two circumstances in which the practical interest directs us to treat computers in ways that diverge from our favoured philosophical theses about thinking machines. I go on to argue that progress in AI should make everyone more confident in the idea that machines can think. In the final section of the paper I argue that the quest to make a machine with a mind is deeply morally problematic.