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Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

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player having a king and a pawn and the other having only<br />

a king) can be thought <strong>of</strong> as straightforward logic puzzles.<br />

In 1912, the Spanish mathematician and engineer Leonardo<br />

Torres y Quevedo created an electromechanical robot that<br />

could solve such problems. In 1950, Claude Shannon extended<br />

the work to a machine that could play passably well in a variety<br />

<strong>of</strong> end-game scenarios.<br />

<br />

program to play a complete game. Bernstein, who was both<br />

a computer scientist and an accomplished chess player, said<br />

that the machine played a legitimate beginner’s game with the<br />

occasional remarkable move. To reach human expert level, it<br />

had quite a way to go.<br />

<strong>The</strong> invention <strong>of</strong> fuzzy logic by the Azerbaijani mathematician<br />

<br />

and speed <strong>of</strong> computer processors, led to the ability to create<br />

improved chess programs. Thus, in 1996, a team from IBM pitted<br />

their chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, against a grandmaster<br />

and former world champion, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov won the<br />

<br />

<br />

<strong>The</strong>re is little doubt that<br />

weak AI—the ability to<br />

learn, strategize, and react<br />

to the environment—is<br />

well within our grasp. But<br />

the question <strong>of</strong> strong AI<br />

remains: Could computers<br />

ever become conscious, selfaware<br />

beings with their own<br />

minds? That is, can we create<br />

a nonorganic version <strong>of</strong> a<br />

functioning human brain?<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

© LDProd/iStock/Thinkstock.<br />

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