ntoll.org

Engaging in philosophical analysis is an essential (and difficult) activity for shedding light on those aspects of a problem that do not obviously fall within the realm of software engineering. This is especially true when trying to understand concepts such as “meaning”, “understanding” and “thinking”.

This article is a demonstration of philosophical analysis by engaging with two chat-bot related problems. The first concerns the question “can machines think?” and the second examines “meaning”.

When I explain my plans for the month of November to my friends, family and (soon-to-be-former) colleagues they inevitably comment on how I’ll (not) find the time to do all the tasks I have set myself to a standard that I will be happy with.

However, in my favour:

• I always set myself unrealistic work-loads and high targets.
• I understand that I do so because I know how to be lazy.

In this article I explain why these are positive character traits.