Stephen Downes

This article tries to draw a thread through four hundred years of discourse on machines and method, from Descartes's distinction between mind and matter, through to today's debates about whether AI can experience consciousness. Many of the big names are referenced and so the article might be used as a valuable guide to additional reading. There are a few good bits in it, including this: "I need someone else to read this article for it to mean anything, for it to be understood by others." The meaning is not inherent in the pattern on paper or the sound in the air; it requires separate and additional skills to be brought to it by a reader or interpreter. The language is public, but the literacy is personal.