219 works selected for the 40 candidate questions. Selections approved by Ben Breen, 29 September 2026. Arguments are unverified. Quotations were chosen by machine and are unchecked.
14 of 219 works
1759JohnsonJohnson,The Idler, No. 74EnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q23Does relying on written records weaken the ability to remember?
1829CarlyleCarlyle,Signs of the TimesEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q14Would machines becoming more capable than humans necessarily place humans in a subordinate position?
Yes. Argues that the age of machinery has made men mechanical in head and heart as well as in hand.
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
Yes. Calls the age mechanical in head and heart; men hope only in mechanism, and worship an idol of Strength instead of the Beautiful and Good.
- Q35Does treating the state as an artificial machine give its members grounds to redesign it?
No. The age trusts machinery in politics as in industry, believing good government is a matter of mechanical arrangements; Carlyle holds that social health depends on inward, dynamic forces that no constitution-making can supply.
- Q14Would machines becoming more capable than humans necessarily place humans in a subordinate position?
1836PoePoe,Maelzel's Chess-PlayerEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
No. Calculation is determinate and can be mechanized, but in chess no move follows necessarily from the last and the opponent's will interrupts any fixed sequence, so a pure machine could not play.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
1842MenabreaMenabrea,Sketch of the Analytical Engine Invented by Charles BabbageFrenchPeriodicalFull text
Luigi Federico Menabrea
Notions sur la machine analytique de M. Charles Babbage
French · Periodical
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
No. The engine cannot interpret a result that is not self-evident, such as a value becoming infinite; it can handle the case only if the programmer foresaw it and punched a card for it.
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
1860SpencerSpencer,The Social OrganismEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q35Does treating the state as an artificial machine give its members grounds to redesign it?
No. Society is a growth and not a manufacture; constitutions are not made but grow, so treating the state as a contrivance to be redesigned mistakes its nature.
- Q35Does treating the state as an artificial machine give its members grounds to redesign it?
1863ButlerButler,Darwin among the MachinesEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q13Can machines undergo a process of evolution even when humans build and reproduce them?
Yes. Argues that machines are evolving by the same process as organisms, with humans serving their reproduction, and will supplant humans.
- Q27Should a useful invention be restricted if its harmful consequences cannot be reliably controlled?
Yes. Signed 'Cellarius', the letter argues machines are evolving toward supremacy over man and that 'war to the death' should be proclaimed and every machine destroyed.
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
1870JevonsJevons,On the Mechanical Performance of Logical InferenceEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
Yes. Jevons contrasts the incompleteness of the ancient syllogism with deduction founded on fundamental laws of thought that can be embodied in uniform mechanical movements.
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
1887WilsonWilson,The Study of AdministrationEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q36Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?
Yes. Administration should be a separate science carried out by trained officials under political direction, kept apart from politics.
- Q36Should public officials carry out rules without exercising personal moral judgment?
1895CarrollCarroll,What the Tortoise Said to AchillesEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
No. Shows in dialogue that a party who accepts the premises can still refuse the conclusion, because each rule of inference added as a new premise demands another rule to apply it.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1908PoundPound,Mechanical JurisprudenceEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
No. Criticizes judges who deduce decisions mechanically from fixed conceptions regardless of results, and calls for law judged by how it works in practice.
- Q11Should a judge follow a general rule when it produces an unjust result in a particular case?
1911Henry et al.Henry et al.,Sensory Disturbances from Cerebral LesionsEnglishPeriodicalFull text
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
Yes. Anything that takes part in the conscious movement of the body is added to the body schema; a woman's sense of location may extend to the feather in her hat.
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
1914QuevedoQuevedo,Essays on AutomaticsSpanishPeriodicalFull text
Leonardo Torres Quevedo
Ensayos sobre automática: su definición, extensión teórica de sus aplicaciones
Spanish · Periodical
Full text · No English translation
Open source →- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
No. Torres argues that appropriate replies need not involve the automaton’s own reasoning: the constructor could prearrange them. The restored paragraph compares the practical difficulty with constructing a lifelike animal. This is a theoretical construction, not a report of a built conversational machine.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
Yes. Torres rejects the mental/manual distinction and proposes automata whose actions are determined by circumstances under rules fixed at construction. Arbitrariamente means rules freely specified by the constructor, not random conduct. This passage does not establish learning beyond anticipated cases.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
1919FreudFreud,The UncannyGermanPeriodicalFull text
- Q39Can love for an artificial being remain genuine after its artificial nature is known?
This answer is hidden while the authors build this question’s position key.
- Q39Can love for an artificial being remain genuine after its artificial nature is known?
1933BerdyaevBerdyaev,Man and MachineRussianPeriodicalFull text
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?
Yes. Berdyaev describes faith in technics as the remaining strong faith of modern civilized humanity, whose attachment to it may change humanity’s own image.
- Q31Can reliance on machinery become a form of idolatry?