Can Machines Think? “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”
Alan Turing
About Computing Machinery and Intelligence
Alan Turing was a brilliant British mathematician, logician, and codebreaker who pretty much laid the groundwork for modern computer science. During World War II, he cracked the Nazi Enigma code. After the war, he asked a question that still stirs up debate today: “Can machines think?”
In Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), Turing explores whether a computer could ever truly think or be considered intelligent. But instead of trying to define “thinking” (a famously messy task), he proposed something much simpler: the imitation game—what we now call the Turing Test.
Here’s how it works: Imagine a text-only chat where you’re messaging with a human and a machine, but you don’t know which is which. If the machine can fool you into thinking it’s the human, Turing says it’s fair to say it’s thinking. No soul-searching, no metaphysics—just performance.
Turing also takes on some classic objections—like “machines can’t have emotions” or “machines can’t make mistakes.” His responses are clever and sometimes kind of sassy. For example, when people say machines can only do what we program them to do, Turing points out… humans also follow rules, patterns, and learned behaviors. Are we really that different?
Turing’s essay is incredibly ahead of its time. Long before Siri, Alexa, or ChatGPT (👋), he imagined a future where machines might not just calculate—but communicate, imitate, and maybe even learn.
Before You Read
Think about all the times you’ve talked to a chatbot, used voice assistants like Siri, or had your Netflix recs eerily nail your vibe. Now ask yourself: Are these machines thinking? Or just really good at pretending to?
Alan Turing, writing back in the 1950s, was already asking these questions. But instead of trying to define “thinking” in some deep philosophical way, he flips the script. What if we just focused on whether machines can act like they think? Would that be enough?
As you read, think about how you’d tell the difference between real thought and a good imitation. And consider this: if a machine can have a full conversation with you and you can’t tell it’s a machine… does it even matter if it’s “really” thinking?
Guiding Questions
- What is the Turing Test, and how is it supposed to answer the question “Can machines think?”
- Why does Turing think it’s better to avoid defining “thinking” directly?
- How does he respond to common objections like “machines can’t have feelings” or “machines can’t be creative”?
- Do you think a machine that passes the Turing Test is truly intelligent? Why or why not?
Where to find this reading
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