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TOK Essay: Can a Machine know?

Here is the deal; I know there is another thread out there discussing this thats actually how I found this forum. But that topic was going down the wrong road. It wasnt really adressing the question in terms of TOK, but rather too general.

What I need, is a bunch of Problems of Knowledge that relate to this topic.

Obviously there is the ambiguity of language, what is a machine and knowledge etc.

Also if an artificial inteligence is programmed to react to stimuli in a certain way, and therefore (acording to some definitions) have knowledge about the situation, the programming could be corrupt. I dunno thats all I could think of :confused:

But other than that nothing comes to mind right now (TOK is not my strong point because I dont give a rats ass).

And what about how it connects to areas of knowledge and ways of knowing. I conected it with Biology in terms of; is the human body a machine. What else? And ways of knowing is more obvious, for a machine to know it needs to be able to utilse the ways of knowing, perception, reason etc.

Can anybody help me out with this stuff? Oh btw am I being academically dishonest by asking random strangers on the internet for help on this?

thnx alrdy :biggrin:

Reply 1

Deus

If you are doing the ToK essay I cannot stress enough that the question is:

"Can a Machine Know?"

NOT think.

Reply 2

Paultjuh

ok ive changed it...ive actually written a rough draft in which I actually did use know, not think. obviously the two are different. ok thnx for the heads up

Reply 3

dan

Deus, If you'd have read the post that followed the title, you'd realise the poster obviously made a mistake in the title as they promptly started talking about knolwedge.

EDIT: it seems I got beaten to the punch.

Imperative to this essay is defining knowledge and saying how a machine's knowledge is different to a human's knowledge. An interesting point you could bring in if you're brave enough is questionning whether humans themselves are machines and are programmed to do things.

Reply 4

Paultjuh

brave enuf? im up for the challenge! :biggrin:

no but I did something like that, the definition of a machine I am planning to work with is:

something with parts that work together to do a job.

I dont really like the definition because of the word something, it sounds very... unsufisticated. With this definition, the human body is classified as a machine, althought, if you think about it; just because McDonald food tastes good, doesnt mean that all good tasing food is from McDonalds, thus something that fits with the definition doesnt neceserally need to be a machine.

Also, I was wondering whether I change it into: a man-made object with parts that work together to do a job. This however would eliminate the human body a a machine. But it might be more what the examinors are looking for.

Any thoughts?

Reply 5

dan

Surely a machine is just something that converts mechanical energy to work.

As you can see, yet again a physicists view :p:

Reply 6

Paultjuh

I dropped physics before IB for goods reasons, I had a decent grade on it but no idea how I achied it ^^ didnt wanna embarass myself in the future haha...

mechanical energy would be?

"In physics, mechanical energy describes the potential energy and kinetic energy present in the components of a mechanical system."

wikipedia :P

is that correct?

Reply 7

dan

hmm sounds vaguely right. But thats just the total energy of a mechanical system (which is in effect its mechanical energy).

But that is not really for a ToK essay :wink:

Reply 8

Paultjuh

yeh but i sort of wanted to know what I was talking bout if I used a definition involving mechanical energy... but this definition is sort of...a loop...no it rlly is...

you see... a a machine is a mechanical system which turns mechanical energy into work, but all this mechanical stuff just means machine, and you cant define something by itself, you cant say like: persuasion is when you persuade some1, for example. am I full of shte here and just confusing myself or do I have a point?

Reply 9

CondignFreedom

I'm also doing my TOK essay on that subject. I have something written down, but it all goes around the fact that machines are programmed with a certain task and that they cannot know themselves without the help of humans. And I added quite a bit on Artificial Intelligence. I need some pointers... Especially when it comes to the Problems of Knowledge. (It doesn't help that my essay is due tomorrow)

Reply 10

Paultjuh

well knowledge acording to my definition is: a justified true belief. thats the one we were taught.

the justification is based on authority, in this case being the programmer.
then there is a problem of knowledge, because authority can be abused and a knowledge claim made by a machine justified by authority could be false, biased, etc (Problem of Knowledge)

then belief is a mental acceptance and conviction in the truth, actuality or validity of something and the question is can an artificial inteligence at this time fit the definition? i think not