Knowledge Issue of the Week [3/4/12]

Here I will posting a weekly ToK [Theory of Knowledge AKA Philosophy] issue here. These are logical issues, which users can debate about for a full week. There is no winner to this debate, just a philosophical discussion that all can join nd give their opinion to. It's for stimulating the mind you see? lol.

So here's this week's issue:

Can a machine know?

I think there an issue with your topic. What do you mean with know?

I believe machines can store knowledge, but they will never be capable of original thought.

Know is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

1. Be aware of through observation, inquiry, or information.
2. Have knowledge or information concerning any particular subject.

@Marlo
Well when it comes to create new knowledge you have the example of axiomatization of math. You see during the first years of the XX century mathematicians developed a way of "writing" math thoughts. That way they discover how to create new theorems in ways they never had thought of. From certain point of view you can create new knowledge (theorems) out of old one (axioms). From an other point of view you are not creating new knowledge just restating the old one.

On the other hand thinking it's a physical phenomenon. There are certain natural process going through one's mind when one is thinking. So if one could emulate those process you can make a machine think.

Finally what's a machine? I mean, a bioengineered being is a machine? what defines a machine as such?

@Kouzai

Machine can store knowledge. And if we tweak them they can remember and rethink or reelaborate. Being aware on the other hand it's a little different. You can program a machine to say "i know i'm a machine" but that makes it aware of itself? How do you describe awareness?

Awareness - Awareness is the state or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects or sensory patterns. In this level of consciousness, sense data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding. More broadly, it is the state or quality of being aware of something. In biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.

If that much is true, it can be argued that a machine CAN know. For example, Artifical Intelligence in games. Most enemies in games are programmed with an AI that is supposed to recognize and sense certain patterns, and some of them act on these patters. This is of course, the most basic level, but it's possible.

Vermilion Emperor Kouzai wrote:

In biological psychology, awareness is defined as a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event.

From that point of view machine can BE aware since they can be able to know how to react when certain condition or events happens. For instance "when hit a wall go backward turn 90 degrees and go foward". So if you put it that way its easy to make a machine know. BTW i'd aldo accept what YOU think the word means. A dictionary it's handy sometimes but it's also a little cold. One could argue that know is to predict what's going to happen and that falls a little away from the definition you gave me. On the other hand machines can predict. Excel is a good example of such.