Why do all these machines think I need to know the time, anyway?

A typical assignment was to write an essay on whether machines can think or not.

People knew the device had to be a trick, but they also wanted to believe that a machine could think like a human.

Quite a small machine, he thought, but it was too far off for him to recognize the type.

A machine does not think in such a contemplative fashion.

"I know you can tell what other machines are thinking," said Masklin.

How much longer, if ever, will it be before machines can think?

Who could tell what intelligent machines thought they needed in their transportation vehicles?

The idea was to answer what many scientists and philosophers believe will become the central question of the information age: Can machines think?

In essence he proposes to change the question from "Do machines think?"