In Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation, computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum asserts the existence of two distinct modes of human thought: intuition and logic. Intuitive thought is generative in ways that logical thought can never be because intuition holds itself to less rigorous standards of evidence. Yet, logical thought keeps intuition grounded by turning impressions and hunches into testable hypotheses. For Weizenbaum, intuition belies the aggrandized claims made on behalf of logical computation by his peers in the field of artificial intelligence. Intuition, in essence, eludes the mathematical formalism necessary for calculation because it is the very thing lost in the rationalization of individual impressions. It takes human reason and judgment to recognize that computer power and calculation do not make up for intuition’s loss. Computers will never be capable of such insight no matter how far artificial intelligence advances.
Weizenbaum’s argument, made in 1976, is...
