We can't know whether future machines will shed light on mentality
Knowing whether future machines will illuminate human mentality requires knowledge of issues that we have no way of predicting (see detailed text).
Knowing whether future machines will illuminate human mentality requires:
- knowing the specific ways in which language changes when terms normally applied to humans begin to be used for machines;
- knowing whether we will understand the machines we build (it's not obvious that we will understand them);
- knowing whether the relevant features of the machines we build also occur in humans.
Because we have no way of predicting these issues, we have no way of knowing how, or if, future machines will shed light on human mentality.
Keith Gunderson (1985).