Can an Artificial Brain Know

With the escalating progress of technology, the 21st century has been hailed as the “Age of Technology.” As stated by Thomas Kuhn, scientific progress escalates, and eventually revolutionizes, creating a paradigm shift. This continuous process progressively reveals more knowledge and understanding, enlightening those who sparked the shift. Recently, society has undergone a paradigm shift within computers and technology. The ability of computers is ever increasing, and in the future the activity and processes of machines may be unrecognizable from that of the human brain. These implications cast immediate problems of knowledge upon the subject. Initially, questions of whether: the “logic of the machine” is actually the machine’s own logic, and whether consciousness is needed to know, arise. However, later problems could begin to question the actual difference between computers and the brain as technology increases.

Due to the colossal increase in our comprehension of technology, the capability of modern machines is becoming quite difficult to classify. By definition a machine is “any mechanical or organic device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of any task.” By this definition, there is no classification of whether a machine has the equal ability of humans, especially in reference to a humans ability to know. In order to first understand a machine’s capability, one must first understand knowledge. Plato asserts that for information to be considered knowledge, it must be a justified, true belief. According to Plato, there are three characteristics to truth: it is public, it is independent of anyone’s belief, and it is eternal. Plato also states that justification can be achieved in four different ways: logic, memory, empirical evidence, and authority. Therefore, the information which machine’s possess can only be labeled as knowledge, giving the machine the ability to know, if it satisfies Plato’s requirements.

In order to classify a machine as having knowledge, it must first be taken into account that the machines are all programmed by humans. Thus arises the question, “Is knowledge which has been programmed into a machine actually considered knowledge?” Perception is labeled as one of the four important ways of knowing in the IB inner hexagon. Through different perspectives, different beliefs are often achieved, creating different opinions or ideals. The programming of a machine can be viewed in one of two different perspectives. First, it can be believed that the programming of the computer is similar to teaching. All knowledge must be derived from somewhere, and the act of passing on knowledge is labeled “teaching”. In this perspective, the machine is merely being taught what it needs to do to properly function. But, from another perspective, this programming is not similar to teaching at all. As the machine does not comprehend the information being programmed, and is only able to manipulate the information, the machine has no sense of knowledge.