Alan Turing

"We do not know what components are required for thinking until we have tried to build a thinking machine."

"A machine does not tire, does not lose its temper, and is not subject to boredom."

"There should be no real difficulty in constructing a 'thinking machine' based on the pattern of the human brain."

"We must be careful not to confuse the map with the territory, the symbol with the thing symbolized."

"The question of whether machines can think is not as important as the question of what the nature of thinking is."

"Computable numbers are the numbers which can be computed by finite means."

"The only way forward is to make machines more and more like people."

"A machine can be constructed that will explore a space of possibilities."

"The human body is ultimately a machine, subject to the same laws of physics as all other machines."

"Intelligence is not a thing; it is a process, a way of interacting with the world."

"The mechanical viewpoint of nature has given us incredible power but has also blinded us to deeper truths."

"We should ask not 'Can machines think?' but rather 'What would constitute thinking in a machine?'"

"A machine's decision to do something new is fundamentally no different from a man's."

"The phenomenon of thinking is not as unique to humans as we might have believed."

"In order for a machine to be intelligent, it must be capable of making mistakes."

"There is no room for doubt about machines; doubt itself can be computed."

"The purpose of a machine is to serve man, but man must learn to serve the machine's logic."

"What is the nature of information if a machine can process it?"

"We are at the threshold of understanding intelligence in a completely new way."

"A machine that could imitate human conversation would be a landmark in human understanding."

"The discrete machine is more trustworthy than the continuous machine."

"If a machine can convince us it is thinking, then for practical purposes, it is thinking."

"The question 'Do machines deserve rights?' presupposes that machines can be considered moral agents."

"We must not assume that human thinking is the only kind of thinking possible."

"The advantage of the digital machine is not speed but universality."

"A machine's behavior is determined entirely by its programming and initial state."

"The universe itself may be thought of as a vast computing machine."

"To say that a machine cannot think is to confuse the map with the territory."

"The proper way to test machine intelligence is through interactive dialogue."

"We should not expect machines to think like humans; they will think in their own way."