Record Player Argument

A robot "plays" its behaviour in the same way that a phonograph plays a record. It is just programmed to behave in certain ways.

21

The Ziff argument

"Because there are not psychological truths about robots but only about the human makers of robots. Because the way a robot acts (in a specified context) depends primarily on how we programmed it to act. Because we can program a robot to act in any way we what it to act. Because a robot could be programmed to act like a tired man when it lifted a feather and not when it lifted a ton. Because a robot couldn't mean what it said any more than a phonograph record could mean what it said" (P. Ziff, 1959, p. 67-68).

References

Ziff, Paul. 1959. The feelings of robots. Analysis 19(3), January 1959: 64-68.

For example:

"When we laugh at the joke of a robot, we are really appreciating the wit of a human programmer and not the wit of the robot." Putnam, 1964, p.679.

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