THE THINKING MACHINE

[Music] [Applause] when the heel of any up-to-date science-fiction show has a problem he usually turns to his trusty computer for an answer somehow or other science fiction computers always manage to think of something [Music] sometimes they think so hard they get uptight they blow their cool this computerized robot spent the better part of a one-hour TV show thinking himself into falling in love with another robot of course but how about real-life computers do the so-called Thinking Machines really think well do computers really think to answer that we'll have to find out what the word think means let's see if our computerized friend can help my data bank dictionary has many definitions of barber - thanks but what's the first one please - thank truth call to mind to remember people can't always recall things the instant they want to but storing information and recalling it is something electronic computers do remarkably well in fact it is disability that makes their operation automatic once programmed it can refer to its own memory for instructions and data of course memory devices aren't new they came into existence as soon as man learned he could use substitutes or symbols to represent the things he wanted to remember the next time he wanted to know how many cows he owned he could refer to the sack of pebbles instead of rounding up the herd again put the pebbles on a frame and numbers could be stored simply by changing the pebbles positions mechanical memories use all kinds of symbols such as lines carved and marble so you won't forget the glory of the past or strings on fingers so you won't forget to pay your light bill [Music] the familiar light switch is much closer in time and spirit to the kind of memory computers actually use lamp on lamp off either way this simple equipment is one bit or binary digit of information with more lamps greater quantities of information can be stored but mechanical switches and lamps are too slow modern computers use fast magnetic memory devices [Music] such as tapes or disks stacked like jukebox records or tiny cores woven together like indian deeds large computers use these and other types of memory devices to achieve tremendous storage capacities the computer being queried by this librarian can give her instant information on the whereabouts of any of the thousands of books in her charge if remembering were the only definition of thinking we'd have to put computers in the mental giant category it is not to think so subject to the process of logical thought playing chess certainly involves a high degree of logic and this computer at MIT has been programmed to play a very respectable game it's human opponent studies his move on an actual chess board before feeding it into the computer the computer then performs logic operations to determine its next move and displays it on this screen it is even won first place in an amateur tournament but how can a collection of wired Hardware be capable of logic basically logic is a predictable series of facts or events such as closing this switch and this one to ring the bell in fact computer people call this a logic and circuit the same components can be rewired into a logic or circuit to ring the bell by closing either this switch or this one and or and many other kinds of elementary logic circuits are the basic building blocks that form the complex logic networks we call computers the computer controlling this electronic telephone switching office makes millions of logical decisions every day all with the infallible logic it takes to quickly connect to telephone to any of the more than 100 million other telephones in this country that would be pretty good thinking if logic were the only definition there is also visualization to think to form a mental picture of all of us are capable of translating symbols into mental images but computers aren't nearly as imaginative they are very good however at taking abstract data processing it and producing pictures on cathode ray tubes these are the complex motions of an orbiting satellite as seen from outer space even more interesting is the computers ability to simulate designs or systems this scientist at Bell Telephone laboratories is designing an electronic circuit by drawing with a light pen on the face of a television screen connected to a computer he can make changes in the design and simulate its operation without the necessity of actually building it [Music] when it comes to memory logic for forming images we computers are pretty good thinkers just a minute aren't there any other definitions yes Joe thank toh perceive or recognize Mary when it comes to recognition computers are still pretty inept they can be made to see by means of optical or magnetic sensors such as those used by this bank cheque reader but so far computers are limited to recognizing simple well-defined patterns like post office zip code numbers provided they're typed and properly positioned [Music] but teaching a computer to generalize to recognize that all these symbols mean the same thing is more difficult when it comes to language translation computers aren't very bright either some progress is being made but the problems are enormous essentially they boil down to one fact there is no such thing as an absolute one-to-one correspondence between the words of one language and those of another for example when out-of-sight out-of-mind was put through one translating computer it came out as the foreign language equivalent of invisible imbecile imagine what mechanical translation would do the slang it is a frightening thought may I go on to the next definition to think to have feeling or consideration for computer programmers have been known to fall in love with their computers but no computer was ever observed returning the sentiment in fact computers are absolutely devoid of feelings and a good thing too they neither play favorites with programmers nor get angry at their mistakes best of all they never get bored like other machines they can do the same monotonous chores all day long without complaining but they can be programmed to simulate human emotions getting our tea I'll bet your next definition involves creativity right to think to create or devise creativity a word just as hard to define as thinking still seems to be a uniquely human capability so far no computer has ever composed a hit song painted a beautiful picture or designed an original dragster but computers can be programmed to appear creative all these pictures were drawn by computers [Music] [Music] a computer has been used to produce animated pictures as well one animated film produced by a computer is on the subject of producing animated films on a computer the technique has already produced some interesting results like the pictures the music you are listening to was also produced by a computer [Music] [Music] [Applause] the computer an ingenious collection of electronic hardware was created by man it is also man who creates two programs that make the computer the useful tool that it is without a program a computer is no more productive than a player piano without a music roll or a jukebox without a record [Applause] still whether the big machines are creative or not is irrelevant when you consider their usefulness and efficiency billions of correct mathematical operations between errors the equivalent of a thousand people computing for a lifetime without making a mistake but do they think well let's say they carry out some processes that are similar to human thought or better yet let's just say it all depends on what you mean by thinking [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music]