Giant brains; or, Machines that think

by Edmund Callis Berkeley

But, you may ask, what if the person analyzing your answers has to use interpretations and judgments? If the judgments and interpretations can be expressed in words, and if the words can be translated into machine language, then the machine can carry out the analysis. Usually the difference between a rule and a judgment is simply this: a rule in a case in which it is hard to express all the factors being considered is called a judgment.

Psychological Trainer

It is conceivable that machines that think can eventually be applied in the actual treatment of mental illness and maladjustment. Consider what a physician does. In treating a psychiatric case, such as a neurosis, a physician uses words almost entirely. He asks questions. He listens to the patient’s answers. Each answer takes the physician nearer and nearer to a diagnosis. By and by the physician knows what most of the difficulty is. Then he must present his knowledge slowly to the patient, gradually guiding the patient to understanding. It is a psychological truth that telling a man in ten minutes what is wrong with him does not cure him. The physician seeks to free the patient from the tormenting circles of habit and worry in which he has been trapped. Often the diagnosis is short and the treatment is long; the reasons for the neurosis may soon be clear to the physician, but they may take months to become clear to the patient.

Now let us consider the following kind of machine as an aid to the physician. We might call this kind of machine a psychological trainer, for in many ways it is like the training machines used in World War II for training a pilot to fly an airplane. The psychological trainer would have the following properties:

1. The machine is able to show sound movies—produce pictures and utter words.

2. It is able to put before the patient: situations, problems, questions, experiences, etc.

3. It is able to take in responses from the patient.

4. It is able to receive a program of instructions from the physician.

5. Depending on the responses of the patient and on the program from the physician, the training machine can select more material to put before the patient.

6. The training machine produces a record of what it presented and of how the patient responded, so that the physician and the patient can study the record later.