The Philosophy of AI

Abstract

As we shall see, the “theology of technology” can help inform the philosophical underpinnings of AI. We start with elucidating the idea of computation, and describe the idea of Turing machine computation. Its equivalence with Post systems and the lambda calculus are explained, and the way that these systems may be regarded as “rule based” and “generative” are brought out. All the equivalent formal models define enumerable languages. However, as Turing’s original definition demonstrated, there are definable numbers that are not computable, that is, a computer could not be used to write some numbers down, yet they exist. The presence of “unsolvable” computational problems also reveals the limitations of Turing machines, and suggests the current limits of computation. While the “intuitive” understanding of computation is one of “step-by-step” algorithmic procedure, it will be hard to conceive of any other computational model.