Turing, Alan

"Do the identifications which we can make in the case of the human nervous system, have any significance?"

"In some cases, the machine might learn so well that it could teach its programmers new things."

"The electronic computer has only just been invented, and we do not yet fully understand its capabilities."

"Short term, the machines won't overtake us. Long term, who knows?"

"It is claimed that machines cannot have much diversity of behavior - that stereotyped would be a better word."

"The effect of these man-made machines will be far more drastic than the natural selection had previously been."

"We are not trying to do a full simulation of a brain, but rather the abstract principles of intelligence."

"To what extent do we regard the machine as thinking? This is where we must be careful in our use of language."

"The idea that a program is 'thinking' is a matter of perspective and definition."

"What is the most significant thing about machines? That they have memory - artificial, perfect, complete memory."

"The mechanist view is the most reasonable assumption we can make at the present stage of our knowledge."

"Machines will do what we program them to do - the question is what we should program them to do."

"One's relations with other people are governed by one's feelings about them."

"The complexity of the human mind might be less than we think if we break it down into component parts."

"Digital computers have only come into existence very recently, and it is reasonable to expect that their powers will increase rapidly."

"We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all purely intellectual fields."

"If we can make machines that think, what does that say about the nature of human thought itself?"

"The unthinking routines of machines can be the foundation for more complex and adaptive behaviors."

"Logical systems themselves do not think - they merely manipulate symbols according to rules."

"The capacity to learn from experience is perhaps the most important aspect of intelligence."

"Man as a whole, or man as a mathematician, is not comparable to a machine, but some parts of man are."

"How do we know when a machine understands something versus merely processing it?"

"The definition of machine intelligence must be operational, not philosophical."

"Digital computers are among the most versatile of all machines, in the range of processes they can simulate."

"Once you start thinking about machines thinking, you realize how much of human thought is actually quite mechanical."

"The real question is not whether machines can think, but whether they can be built to behave as if they think."

"Programming involves instructing a machine to perform operations that are, in themselves, quite trivial."

"The machine-mind relationship might be understood through the lens of game-playing and rule-following."

"When we talk about machine intelligence, we must first clarify what we mean by intelligence itself."

"Machines will be able to do many things that are now thought to require human intuition."