Can Computers Replace People?

Most people's jobs are likely to be affected by computers in one way or another. Teachers, for example, can use computer terminals or sets of screens and keyboards in the classroom. Each pupil may one day have a terminal to use, which can pose problems and ask questions, and the computer can inspect and check the pupil's replies. But could a computer ever replace teachers or do any job a man or woman can do? The short answer is that this is very unlikely.

At the moment there are vast numbers of things a computer cannot do. Computers cannot perform an operation or dock a big ship. But they can help the people who do these tasks. In fact, computers can help nearly everyone, from an architect to a postal clerk. However, there is no program that makes a computer behave in anything like the way a human mind works. Even so, some people are trying to program computers to think like people. They have had some surprising successes. Some computer programs can play chess much better than the average player, and there is one game in which a computer has beaten the world champion: backgammon, which is a board game like chess but much simpler.

But playing backgammon is only one skill. How can we decide if a computer is as "intelligent" as a human being? A simple test has been suggested. The test involves two people who have never met before—person A and person B—and a computer, all three in separate rooms. A has to try to tell the difference between B and the computer. B tries to make it clear to A that he is not a computer, but the computer is programmed to try to deceive A into thinking that it is B. Obviously A could tell easily if he could see into the other rooms, or if he could speak to B, so the only way that he can communicate with both the computer and B is through terminals. A has two terminals, one leading to each of the other rooms, and he can use them to ask any questions he likes. If he cannot tell from the replies which terminal leads to the computer, then it is generally accepted that the computer must be regarded as being as intelligent as a human. At the moment no program has been written which gets a computer anywhere near it.

Computers are only effective when problems are clearly described in advance. They are next to useless when problems are not clearly described. For example, an airplane can fly automatically most of the time, but there is always a human pilot in case something goes wrong. The human can react to any situation, some of which he may never have imagined. At the moment most computer programs need to know everything that might happen in advance, and what to do if it does happen. Such programs can be written if the computer is only playing backgammon, but they cannot be written for a nurse, an athlete, or any number of other professions.

Some people say that computers can never have "minds of their own" because they need a program, which is created by a human, to tell them what to do. This is perfectly true. But how do we know that a program cannot be written which gives a computer a mind of its own? A programmer cannot always say in advance how a computer running his or her program will react. There are many examples of a computer running a chess-playing program in which the computer has made the best possible choice of the alternative moves it was programmed to make. Despite this, it will be many years before a program is devised that is anything like the human mind.