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.
9 of 219 works
1936TuringTuring,On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the EntscheidungsproblemEnglishPeriodicalIn copyright
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
No. Proves that no general mechanical procedure can decide, for every statement of first-order logic, whether it follows from given axioms.
- Q10Can a fixed procedure for reasoning settle a disagreement when the participants accept the same premises?
1938ReyRey,Helen O'LoyEnglishFictionIn copyright
- 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?
1943RosenbluethRosenblueth,Behavior, Purpose and TeleologyEnglishPeriodicalIn copyright
Arturo Rosenblueth, Norbert Wiener and Julian Bigelow
English · Periodical
In copyright · English original
Open source →- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
Yes. Machines governed by negative feedback correct their course toward a goal from information about their own errors, so purposeful behavior is not unique to organisms.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
1945Merleau-PontyMerleau-Ponty,Phenomenology of PerceptionFrenchTreatiseIn copyright
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Phénoménologie de la perception
French · Treatise
In copyright · No English translation
Open source →- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
Yes. The blind man's cane stops being an object in his hand and becomes an extension of his bodily reach; habit incorporates the tool into the body schema.
- Q37Should tools used to perform bodily functions be understood as parts of the human body?
1947WienerWiener,A Scientist RebelsEnglishLetterIn copyright
- Q26Can inventors remain responsible for harmful uses of their inventions that they did not intend?
Yes. Wiener responds to a request for wartime research on controlled missiles. He treats disclosure as a moral choice because of foreseeable civilian harm. This supports responsibility for dissemination, not unlimited liability for every unforeseeable use. Brief extract; review the full paragraph before preparing a sorting pool.
- Q26Can inventors remain responsible for harmful uses of their inventions that they did not intend?
1949HartreeHartree,Calculating Instruments and MachinesEnglishTreatiseIn copyright
- 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.
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?
1949JeffersonJefferson,The Mind of Mechanical Man (Lister Oration)EnglishEssayIn copyright
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
No. A machine that produces sonnets or answers is not thinking unless it writes them from felt thoughts and emotions and knows that it has done so.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
1950CésaireCésaire,Discourse on ColonialismFrenchEssayIn copyright
Aimé Césaire
Discours sur le colonialisme
French · Essay
In copyright · No English translation
Open source →- Q34Does superiority in industrial or military technology justify one people governing another?
No. Colonizers' claims of roads, railways and material progress do not justify colonial rule; the Congo-Ocean railway cost lives, and no one knows what these countries would have built without Europe.
- Q34Does superiority in industrial or military technology justify one people governing another?
1950TuringTuring,Computing Machinery and IntelligenceEnglishPeriodicalIn copyright
- 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.
- Q02Would a machine's ability to converse appropriately be sufficient evidence that it thinks?
Yes. Replaces 'Can machines think?' with the imitation game: a machine that converses indistinguishably from a human should be credited as we credit other people.
- Q03Can a machine exercise judgment when faced with circumstances its maker did not anticipate?
Yes. Turing distinguishes a trained machine from a computation whose internal state the operator aims to follow. The omitted continuation allows some prediction of its behaviour; opacity alone does not establish judgment. Brief extract: the full pp.458–459 discussion should be reviewed before making a sorting pool.
- Q01Can a machine originate an idea that its maker did not supply?