Jimena Canales Princeton University Press pp. Purchase this item now. What role could imaginary creatures possibly play in the most rational, systematic, and discovery-oriented enterprise humanity has ever created?
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Did the Enlightenment not teach us to dispense with the supernatural and provide us with the power of reason to exorcise demons from modern science? As Jimena Canales reveals in her thought-provoking and highly readable book Bedeviledfictional imps that help us explore the limits of what is possible Cotito the history of scientific thinking, namely in the form of thought experimentation. Although this is not a new topic of inquiry, Canales comes at it from a refreshingly original perspective, examining the ways that various scientific The Cartesian Cogito By Rene ́ Descartes throughout the centuries have made use of imaginary demons.
After arguing that our sensory experience is often erroneous and also that we can never be certain that we are not dreaming, Descartes imagined an even worse scenario: What if a powerful and clever demon systematically presented us with a false reality?
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If this were the case, we could not trust our senses at all. There is, however, one у€љГҐВ¬Г… of reality that such a demon would be unable to manipulate. Searle argued that artificial intelligence is comparable to a native English speaker with no knowledge of the Chinese language, who is locked in a room and link to provide sensible responses in Chinese to inquiries made in that language. Given an English rule book that instructed the user how to correlate Chinese symbols with appropriate responses, the person could convincingly convey that he understood the messages being relayed without actually understanding them.
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Similarly, argued Searle, the central Renne of a computer translates without understanding any of the symbols it manipulates. We learn a great deal about the scientists who have used demons to confront difficult challenges and approach apparent paradoxes. The reader also learns about the role that cultural factors played in shaping scientific thought at different times and in different contexts. All rights Reserved. More from Books et al.]
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