Daniel#Dijkstra's writing is full of gems đ
The question of whether machines can think is about as relevant as the question of whether submarines can swim
Julien M.#ComputingScience #EdsgerDijkstra #EWD898 #ArtificialIntelligence
The Fathers of the field had been pretty confusing: John von Neumann speculated about computers and the human brain in analogies sufficiently wild to be worthy of a medieval thinker and Alan M. Turing thought about criteria to settle the question of whether Machines Can Think, a question of which we now know that it is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.
The Fathers of the field had been pretty confusing: John von Neumann speculated about computers and the human brain in analogies sufficiently wild to be worthy of a medieval thinker and Alan M. Turing thought about criteria to settle the question of whether Machines Can Think, a question of which we now know that it is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim.
#ComputingScience #EdsgerDijkstra #EWD898
The threats to computing science (1984)
[âŠ] Does this overestimation of the usefulness of the gadget hurt computing science? I fear it does. At the one end of the spectrum it discourages the computing scientist from conducting all sorts of notational experiments because "his word-processor won't allow them", at the other end of the spectrum the art-and-science of program design has been overshadowed by the problems of mechanizing program verification.
The design of new formalisms, more effective because better geared to our manipulative needs, is neglected because the clumsiness of the current ones is the major motivation for the mechanization of their use. It is not only the performing artist who is, in a very real sense, shaped by the instrument he plays; this holds as well for the Reasoning Man, and I leave it to you to determine how disturbed you are going to be by this observation.
The threats to computing science (1984)
[âŠ] Does this overestimation of the usefulness of the gadget hurt computing science? I fear it does. At the one end of the spectrum it discourages the computing scientist from conducting all sorts of notational experiments because "his word-processor won't allow them", at the other end of the spectrum the art-and-science of program design has been overshadowed by the problems of mechanizing program verification.
The design of new formalisms, more effective because better geared to our manipulative needs, is neglected because the clumsiness of the current ones is the major motivation for the mechanization of their use. It is not only the performing artist who is, in a very real sense, shaped by the instrument he plays; this holds as well for the Reasoning Man, and I leave it to you to determine how disturbed you are going to be by this observation.