Can Machines Really Think?

Edsger W. Dijkstra (famous pioneering professor in Computer Science, who died in 2002) was often outspoken past the point of rudeness. On the other hand, he had a talent for bluntly illustrative aphorisms. There was in his day and time (and still is to some extent) an intense debate as to whether smart machinery (computers) could be usefully characterized as thinking machines. There was (and is) much to debate about in this question; much to be said about what precisely is meant by thinking, and what precisely is cognition in general in human beings and in animals... Professor Dijkstra was impatient with the entire debate.

An example of his bent toward blunt aphorism is his quasi-famous comment on the question of whether machines can think.

He said: <quote>

"The question of whether Machines Can Think (…) is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim."

</quote>