Replicated Typo. A Thinking Machine: On metaphors for mind. “The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.” –B. F. Skinner. The study of mind begins with a metaphor. In the 20th century (and now on into the 21st) the metaphor that has dominated our study of mind is the computational metaphor.
The mind, they say, is like a computer. But in what way like a computer? The answer that has often been given – by Chomsky, say, and others – is that the mind is like a spreadsheet: a prefabricated architecture that follows a strict, rule-based program, that rigidly structures its inputs and outputs in just such a way. If you should open a spreadsheet on your computer, you will find that all the functions they perform have already been coded in by a team of programmers.
There is nothing unpredictable about a spreadsheet. To read Chomsky, is to understand that he envisions human language in just such a way. But what if this is simply the wrong metaphor? Meaning and Thinking. Language as a thought magnet. Videos Posted by Funny Pics: Baby discussing some very serious topics.