Can Machines Think? Turing & Cahit Arf

from Early AI Inquiries to the Modern Landscape of Machine Intelligence

I still remember the days when a 10 Turkish Lira note was something we use— bearing the familiar face of Cahit Arf. Even though inflation has long since pushed that note into the past, every time I recall it, I’m reminded of our proud heritage and the pioneers who paved the way in science and technology.

When you talk about the big names in AI—Alan Turing, Ada Lovelace—they are always in the spotlight. Yet, I wish to pay tribute to a remarkable mind from Türkiye, whose inquiry remains as a heritage to Turkish community. Cahit Arf.

In 1958, at a public conference in Erzurum during the academic year of Atatürk University, Cahit Arf echoed the question: "Makine düşünebilir mi ve nasıl düşünebilir?" (Can machines think, and how can they think?). Although Arf is primarily celebrated for his contributions to mathematics—especially the concept of the Arf invariant—this provocative inquiry exemplifies his broader curiosity about the nature of intelligence. At a time when ideas about artificial…