It seems clear that Watson does not recognize itself as an individual or independent consciousness: it does not have spontaneous thoughts or draw original conclusions, but rather responds only to direct stimulus in the form of questions posed. There is no creative spark embedded in Watson's programming that allows for the self-reflection that Watson is "thinking," and thus the computer -- sophisticated as it is and despite its skill in information retrieval -- cannot be said to have the same existence of mind as defined by Descartes. It is simply incapable of the creative self-knowledge that defines consciousness.
Other problems present themselves when it is attempted to assert that Watson is actually an artificial intelligence on par with or exceeding human intelligences, largely because of the language being employed in this analogy. Hume famously deals with analogies and the extent to which they can be used in determining reality and truth in his Dialogue on Natural Religion, in which the analogy between the universe and human-designed machines (used in an attempt to assert that the universe must have a designer, i.e. God) is shown to be false due to the significant level of difference that exists between the two compared items. As Hume has one of the three philosophers engaged in the dialogue say, "So far from admitting, continued Philo, that the operations of a part can afford us any just conclusion concerning the origin of the whole, I will not allow any one part to form a rule for another part" (148). That is, man-made machines are only part of the universe as a whole, and are also significantly different from the universe in scope and operation, therefore the fact that the former are designed cannot be used to support the conclusion that the latter is as well.
This same precise line of reasoning applies to a consideration of Watson's intelligence as potentially comparable to human intelligence. As already noted, Watson does not have the capability for creative thought -- it cannot pose questions or make spontaneous reflections -- and thus is significantly different from human intelligence....
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