Fred the Robot
Minds & Machines Final Project
Based on what has been discussed in class, we don’t think the robot has any intelligence, consciousness or mind. The thing that makes it move around and decide which way to go is the algorithm. All the motion of the robot is based on it. If the robot has intelligence, it would have the ability to adapt to a new environment by using its skills and knowledge in a different way, which is apparently impossible for it. It doesn’t have consciousness because it only can receive and process information, comparing to how a calculator processes information. It takes in and outputs information in a parochial sense. It also does not have self-awareness. Therefore, there is no way for it to possess a mind. We don’t feel any differently regarding the feasibility of AI now that we do this project. The robot is encoded to complete a very simple task, much simpler than the tasks AI should know how to do. There are tons of complex questions for scientists to solve to make an AI, but we did not deal with that during the project.