Anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism: Two faces of the human machine

This paper explores the ambiguity of the 'human machine. ' It suggests that anthropomorphism results from a 'default schema' applied to phenomena, including machines, that a perceiver finds otherwise inexplicable. Mechanomorphism, the attribution of machine characteristics to humans, is a culturally derived metaphor that presently dominates cognitive science. The relationships between anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism pose a special difficulty for the question, 'Can machines think? ' Does a positive response reflect a cognitive bias on the part of the perceiver or a genuine attribute of the computer? The problem is illustrated for Turing's 'initiation game' for thinking machines, and a strategy for constraining anthropomorphic attributions is proposed.