The Mathematics of Communication, Warren Weaver.

1. Warren Weaver says,

“First off, we have to be clear about the rather strange way in which, in this theory, the word ‘information’ is used; for it has a special sense which, among other things, must not be confused at all with meaning.”

As people, we often associate meaning to information; even if we determine some information as having no meaning, we are assigning it a value of 0 meaning. However how can computers evaluate and determine meaning, and if they could, would it be in the same way that we determine meaning? Could computers communicate meaning in ways that are different than humans? Do computers “think” differently than humans?

Computing Machinery and Intelligence, Alan Turing

1. Alan Turing refutes the mathematical objection based on Gödel’s theorem by implying that machine’s can be just as fallible as humans when he says,

“…although it is established that there are limitations to the powers of any particular machine, it has only been stated, without any sort of proof, that no such limitations apply to the human intellect.”

To what extent are we seeing this with modern technology? What does this mean for our relationship with technology from here on out? Will “machine” intellect ever surpass the human intellect?

2. Is fallibility in a machine a good thing? Turing describes the scenario of having a machine play “the imitation game” and programming it to introduce mistakes in order to appear to be more human. He also explains the difference between errors of functioning and errors if conclusion. Should machines be programmed to leave room for errors of conclusion? What about errors of functioning? Even if a machine was programmed perfectly to never be able to make an error of conclusion, isn’t there still the possibility of errors of functioning dur to limitations of materials and wear over time?