![]() ![]() “Let us return for a moment to Lady Lovelace’s objection, which stated that the machine can only do what we tell it to do. Adhering to this analogy we ask, "Can a machine be made to be super-critical?” Animals’ minds seem to be very definitely sub-critical. An idea presented to such a mind may give rise to a whole "theory" consisting of secondary, tertiary and more remote ideas. ![]() An idea presented to such a mind will on average give rise to less than one idea in reply. to correspond in this analogy to piles of sub-critical size. The majority of them seem to be "sub critical," i.e. ![]() Is there a corresponding phenomenon for minds, and is there one for machines? There does seem to be one for the human mind. ![]() If, however, the size of the pile is sufficiently increased, the disturbance caused by such an incoming neutron will very likely go on and on increasing until the whole pile is destroyed. Each such neutron will cause a certain disturbance which eventually dies away. Another simile would be an atomic pile of less than critical size: an injected idea is to correspond to a neutron entering the pile from without. One could say that a man can "inject" an idea into the machine, and that it will respond to a certain extent and then drop into quiescence, like a piano string struck by a hammer. ![]()
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