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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

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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 feels that by calling these early computers "high-speed idiots", people were really implying that computers
选项 A、would never be capable of thought.
B、were already somewhat intelligent.
C、can never work as rapidly as people.
D、were only as clever as human idiots.
答案B
解析 本题考查细节理解。文章第一段后半部分指出：“电子计算机被称作 高速傻瓜(high-speed idiot)，在作者看来，当这样称呼计算机的时候，并非所有的人都意识到这一称呼的含义。人们没有认识到：即使是“傻瓜”，它在所有物种(life form)中也是最有智慧的，如果第一台计算机有这样的智慧的话，那已经是相当不错的了(a remarkable state of affair)”。因此，B 是最佳选项。
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