User talk:Jwichman

{Warning - Newbie - 3rd article edited - I have have to pick the Turing Test)!

However, as it was not completed, I thought I'd start some minor cleanup. In the help for minor cleanup it refers to vague units of measurement. So, here is the questionable mountain I've made of this molehill:

In the first sentence of Philosophy is the line beginning: "The question of whether it is possible for machines to think has a long history."

Is it really a long history or does it go back to around the time of the difference engine which appeared to be (possibly) the earliest machine that could think?

The earliest date mentioned in the rest of the Philosophy section is 1936 (ignoring the links such as dualism which I'm totally ignorant).

After many links, I considered the potential universal Turing machine to perhaps date to the difference engine from 1822. But I found the thinking machine which mentions machines going back to Greek Mythology.

However, in this context, the question is whether the question "The question of whether it is possible for machines to think" - "has a long history."

Perhaps if there were a citation or reference that supported a date of this question being posed earlier than currently cited 1936 date - then a long history would be more accurate. Jwichman (talk) 09:51, 7 October 2010 (UTC)