Ryle, Turing, and Grice -- on 'thinking'

Speranza


********************************** RYLE ON "THINKING" to follow.

Perhaps the crucial scene in "Imitation Game" is the following.

CUT TO:
INT. MANCHESTER POLICE STATION - INTERROGATION ROOM - 1951

Turing sits alone in the interrogation room with his eyes closed.

Nock enters.

NOCK: Cup of tea?

TURING (eyes closed): Thanks, no.

NOCK: Mr. Turing, may I tell you a secret?

TURING: I’m quite good with those.

NOCK: I’m here to help you.

Suddenly, Alan opens his eyes.

TURING (re: being in jail) Clearly.

NOCK (changing tacks): Can machines think?

ALAN TURING: You’ve read my essay in "Mind".

NOCK: What makes you say that?

TURING: Because I’m sitting in a police station, accused of entreating a man to touch my penis, and you’re asking me whether machines can think.

NOCK: Can they?

Could machines ever think AS HUMAN BEINGS DO?

TURING: Most people say no.

NOCK: You’re not "most people".

TURING: The problem is that you’re asking a stupid question.

NOCK: I am?

TURING: Of course machines can NOT think “as human beings do.”

A machine is different from a human being.

Hence, a machine would think differently.

The interesting question is, just because something thinks differently from you, does that mean it’s not "thinking"?

We allow that humans have such divergences from one another.

You like strawberries.

I hate ice-skating.

You cry at sad films.

I’m allergic to pollen.

What does it mean to have different tastes — different preferences — other than to say that our brains work differently?

That we "think" differently from one another?

And if we CAN say *that* about each another, why can’t we say the same for brains made of copper and steel?

NOCK: That’s... This big paper you wrote... What’s it called?

TURING: The Imitation Game.

DETECTIVE NOCK: Right. That’s what it’s about?

TURING (thinking): Would you like to play?

NOCK: Play?

TURING: The game. It’s a test, of sorts.

For determining whether something is a machine, or a human being.

NOCK: How do we play?

TURING: There’s a judge, and a subject.

The judge asks questions, and based on the subject’s answers, he determines:

Who is he speaking with?

What is he speaking with?

All you have to do is ask me a question.

NOCK: What did you do during the war?

TURING: I worked in a radio factory.

NOCK [adding Austin's trouser word par excellence] What did you REALLY do during the war?
Alan smiles — Detective Nock is smarter than he looks.

REFERENCES:

Grice, "Method in philosophical psychology"
Ryle, Thinking.
Turing, Mind essay.