Yesterday in my psychology class we were talking about learning and then my teacher brought up the topic of whether computers can learn. Take for example how bad computer chess players used to be ,making the same mistakes over and over again,but now they are great,to the point where they can beat a world champion. The main reason they have improved so much is because they are now programmed to avoid making the same mistake twice. So if the computer makes a move that leads to a bad position or the loss of a game, the program will modify its own algorithms to avoid making that move again in that particular game situation. In other words, it changes its behavior as a result of experience. So my question to you is: do you think the computer actually learn?

My class got into a heated debate and I agreed with both sides,and I thought it was a good topic,so I wanted to hear what other people thought.

Hello P:

To me, doing something different because of past results IS learning. I don't know what so surprising about that, though. Your brain stores and retrieves data EXACTLY like a computer does. YOU are able to reprogram YOUR brain because you learned something. So, the fact that a computer can learn isn't news.

What's news is a program that can correctly tell the computer what is right and what is wrong. Hell, you and I can't even decide what's right and what's wrong, so I think we're a LONG way from creating a program about it that's countonable.

excon

Learning is simply memorization. A computer can memorize anything that can be stored as data. The way computers work don't allow them to learn like humans, but they are still capable of learning. If you want to see some advanced programming that could be modified into learning, look into metamorphic and polymorphic viruses.

A computer can't learn like a human for some of the following reasons. We have 5 senses that are constantly inputting data, they have a few inputs but nothing like our body. Humans have the ability to feel in the sense of emotions. Whether you want to call it chemical reactions in the brain or just random or whatever, computers don't have that ability either. Furthermore, computers cannot go against their programming. A computer may be able to change its own programming, but only in a calculated fashion based on its inputs.

Maybe humans and computers are exactly alike, but we have far more circuits, inputs, and unknowns.

If you want to strike a real debate, you really need to define what the word learn means. Most people may disagree on the situation because they see learning in different ways.

The two general consensuses are that learning is simply storing data, and second, that learning is somehow different and that it involves something to do with consciousness, which computers can't have.

The main reason they have improved so much is because they are now programmed to avoid making the same mistake twice...the program will modify its own algorithms to avoid making that move again in that particular game situation.
And this all started with and was figured out by a... human. The human, not the computer, learned.

WonderGirl

According to that logic you make flaws in the way humans work.

Where something originates has nothing to do with how it works. For instance, are you incapable of know certain things because your parents taught you?

If you believe in God, does that mean that you can't learn, or feel, or perceive, because God figured it out first?

If you believe in evolution or the big bang, does that mean you cannot feel, think, exist because no one figured it out before?

The human made the computer yes, and created it to function a certain way, yes; that doesn't mean that its functions can't include learning.

The human made the computer yes, and created it to function a certain way, yes; that doesn't mean that its functions can't include learning.
I don't consider that learning. Perhaps as someone else said first, we need to define "learning."

No Computers cannot learn. Computers are simply a collection of switches that are turned on and off. However the software that is run on a computer CAN learn. Software can process the results of actions and make changes to the way it deals with certain actions as the result of prior results.