In attempting to construct such (artificially intelligent) machines we should not be irreverently usurping His (God's) power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children,โ Turing had advised. โRather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing mansions for the souls that He creates.
Alan TuringThese disturbing phenomena [Extra Sensory Perception] seem to deny all our scientific ideas. How we should like to discredit them! Unfortunately the statistical evidence, at least for telepathy, is overwhelming.
Alan TuringInstruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with computing experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-solving ability. There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a drudge, for any processes that are quite mechanical may be turned over to the machine itself.
Alan TuringIt seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powersโฆ They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.
Alan TuringThe original question, 'Can machines think?' I believe to be too meaningless to deserve discussion.
Alan TuringThere is, however, one feature that I would like to suggest should be incorporated in the machines, and that is a 'random element.' Each machine should be supplied with a tape bearing a random series of figures, e.g., 0 and 1 in equal quantities, and this series of figures should be used in the choices made by the machine. This would result in the behaviour of the machine not being by any means completely determined by the experiences to which it was subjected, and would have some valuable uses when one was experimenting with it.
Alan Turing