I Am The Inventor Of A Special New Robot - 1124 Words

I am the inventor of a special new robot. My robot is able to survive and learn on its own, even when I am not there to help it. In fact, it responds to my questions just like a person and even says that it loves me and misses me when I am gone. The government has passed a law that outlaws robots like mine. They claim that such robots have no minds – they are just machines and they will all be destroyed. I disagree with this statement because of two reasons: The function of machines, and the functions of minds. Argument 1 Machines are â€Å"an apparatus using or applying mechanical power and having several parts, each with a definite function and together performing a particular task†. In this aspect, the only difference in humans and†¦show more content†¦Through this, Searle argues that if a human and machine receive the same input and then respond by the same output, how are they any different from one another? When given the same purpose, humans and machines have the same response, therefore machines may have a mind. Gilbert Ryle created The computational theory of mind that claims â€Å"Computers behave in seemingly rational ways; their inner program causes them to behave in this way and therefore mental states are just like computational states†. He continues on by saying that â€Å"If logic can be used to command, and these commands can be coded into logic, then these commands can be coded in terms of 1s and 0s, therefore giving modern computers logic. Through this, how i s one to tell if robots don’t have minds if they use logic just like humans do. When the purpose of humans and machines are the same, they may process differently in order to complete that purpose, although they may have the same output. Because humans and machines receive the same input and return the same output, they both have minds in addition to functions and processes in order to do that. Argument 2 The mind is defined as â€Å"the element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought†. Minds in general give humans the ability