Irreconcilable Similarities. Man and Semantic Machines

The biological structure of certain animals is very similar to that of the human body. And there are machines that can reproduce certain cognitive performances perfectly. It should be possible to combine these facts in building an animal rationale, artificially constructing man out of given components. That such a thought is repugnant to the humanistic tradition is hardly a reason for rejecting it out of hand. Instead of appealing to some mysterious essence of "being human," this tradition should be made to fight in order to make clear what it means by its emotionally charged pronouncements about man's incomparability to intelligent biomachines. My line of thought will in fact lead to the traditional conclusion, but it will demand controversial decisions at some crucial points. The issues raised by recent developments in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence do not simply and inevitably lead to a humanistic dismissal of the subject, and I shall be trying to map out the fundamental turnings of the road that leads to a conviction that nothing can be compared to man.