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  3. The topic of thought is one area of psychology, and many observers have considered this aspect in connection with robots and com

The topic of thought is one area of psychology, and many observers have considered this aspect in connection with robots and com

admin2010-07-06  72
问题       The topic of thought is one area of psychology, and many observers have considered this aspect in connection with robots and computers: Some of the old worry about A1 (artificial intelligence) were closely linked to the question of whether computers could think. The first massive electronic computers, capable of rapid (if often unreliable) computation and little or no creative activity, were soon named "electronic brains". A reaction to this terminology quickly followed: To put them in their place, computers were called "high-speed idiots", an effort to protect human vanity. But not everyone realized the implications of the expression: "high-speed idiot". It has not been pointed out often enough that even the human idiot is one of the most intelligent fife forms on the earth. If the early computers were even that intelligent, it was already a remarkable state of affairs.
     One consequence from studying the possibility of computer thought was that we were forced to examine with new care the idea of thought in general. It soon became clear that we were not sure what we meant by such terms as thought and thinking. We tend to assume that human beings think, some more than others, though we often call people thoughtless or unthinking. Dreams cause a problem, partly because they usually happen outside our control. They are obviously some type of mental experience, but are they a type of thinking? And the question of nonhuman life forms adds further problems. Many of us would maintain that some of the higher animals—dogs, cats, apes, and so on—are capable of at least basic thought, but what about fish and insects? It is certainly true that the higher mammals show complex brain activity when tested with the appropriate equipment. If thinking is demonstrated by evident electrical activity in the brain, then many animal species are capable of thought. Once we have formulated clear ideas on what thought is in biological creatures, it will be easier to discuss the question of thought in artificial machines. One of the great benefits of AI research is that we are being forced to examine more closely the working of the human mind.
     It is already clear that machines have superior mental abilities to many life forms. No tree can play chess as well as even the simplest computer; nor can frogs repair car bodies as well as robots. It seems that, viewed in terms of intellect, the computer should be set well above plants and most animals. Only the higher animals can, it seems, compete with computers with regard to intellect.
The author believes that such words as thought and thinking
选项 A、are terms that are not clear and will never be exactly defined.
B、might come to be better understood because of research into artificial intelligence and computers.
C、have precise biological meanings that refer only to human mental processes.
D、should not be used to describe computers.
答案B
解析 本题考查细节理解。根据文章第二段第二句“对于什么是思想 (thought)或思维(thinking)，我们并不太了解”和第二段最后一句“对人工智能的研究一个最大益处在于我们更深入地研究人的思想过程”，可以看出，选项B 与原文意思相符，因此B 为最佳选项。
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