TEXT E As Dr. Samuel Johnson said in a different era about ladies preaching, the surprising thing about computers is not that they think less well than a man, but that they think at all. The early electronic computer did not have much going for it except a marvelous memory and some good math skills. But today the best models can be wired up to learn by experience, follow an argument, ask proper questions and write poetry and music. They can also carry on somewhat puzzling conversations. Computers imitate life. As computers get more complex, the imitation gets better. Finally, the line between the original and the copy be comes unclear. In another 15 years or so, we will see the computers as a new form of life. The opinion seems ridiculous because, for one thing, computers lack the drives and emotions of living creatures. But drives can be programmed into the computer’s brain just as nature programmed then into our human brain as a part of the equipment for survival. Computers match people in some roles, and when fast decisions are needed in a crisis, they often surpass them. Having evolved when the pace of life was slower, the human brain has an inherent defect that pre vents it from absorbing several streams of information simultaneously and acting on them quickly. Throw too many things at the brain at one time and it freezes up. We are still in control, but the capabilities of computers are in creasing at a fantastic rate, while raw human intelligence is changing slowly, if at all. Computer power has increased ten times every eight years since 1946. In the 1990s, when the sixth generation appears, the reasoning power of an intelligence built out of silicon will begin to match that of the human brain. That does not mean the evolution of intelligence has ended on the earth. Judging by the past, we can expect that a new species will arise out of man, surpassing his achievements as he has surpassed those of his predecessor. Only a carbon chemistry enthusiast would assume that the new species must be man’s flesh-and-blood descendants. The new kind of intelligent life is more likely to be made of silicon. Though he thinks highly of the development of computer science, the author doesn’t mean that
A. computers are likely to become a new form of intelligent life
B. human beings }lave lost control of computers
C. the intelligence of computers will eventually surpass that of human beings
D. the evolution of intelligence will probably depend on that of electronic brains
系夫妻,家住安徽归池县城,生有一子陈小勇。在陈小勇半岁的时候,陈某因犯盗窃罪入狱服刑三年,故陈小勇被送到刘某的母亲周某处帮助抚养。周某原住在安徽竹淄县城,在陈小勇一岁时周某携带陈小勇回其老家湖南营榴桐伴乡的农村居住。现陈某已刑满出狱,想到3年未见儿子,急切地要将儿子接回家自己抚养。周某认为陈某曾犯罪服刑,品德不端,可能影响小孩的成长,因此拒绝了陈某的要求。陈某为此起诉要求陈小勇的抚养权,请求法院判令周某交回陈小勇。刘某向审判人员表示,反对其母继续抚养小孩,想自己抚养小孩,但碍于情面,不愿与其母对簿公堂。请回答下列问题。 刘某在本案中( )。
A. 不参加诉讼,因她不想与其母对簿公堂
B. 如果她明确表示放弃实体权利,可以不参加诉讼
C. 如果她既不愿意参加诉讼,又不放弃实体权利,人民法院应当追加其为共同原告
D. 应当作为被告参加诉讼