The criticisms that we are considering here are often disguised forms of the argument from consciousness. Usually if one maintains that a machine can do one of these things, and describes the kind of method that the machine could use, one will not make much of an impression. It is thought that tile method (whatever it may be, for it must be mechanical) is really rather base. Compare the parentheses in Jefferson’s statement quoted on page 22.

(6) Lady Lovelace’s Objection

Our most detailed information of Babbage’s Analytical Engine comes from a memoir by Lady Lovelace (1842). In it she states, «The Analytical Engine has no pretensions to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform» (her italics). This statement is quoted by Hartree (1949) who adds: «This does not imply that it may not be possible to construct electronic equipment which will “think for itself” or in which, in biological terms, one could set up a conditioned reflex, which would serve as a basis for “learning”. Whether this is possible in principle or not is a stimulating and exciting question, suggested by some of these recent developments. But it did not seem that the machines constructed or projected at the time had this property».