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Cyhist Dec 27 1996 A
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Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 09:31:11 EST
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: keith reid-green <kreid-green@ets.org>
Subject: Re: Thinking and Intelligence and Computers
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
John Ahlstrom wrote: "Can someone send me some URLs or book titles where I can get useful definitions of "think" and "intelligent" that will let me think about this in an intelligent way?"
I think "Artificial Intelligence," like "memory" for "storage", is a misleading term. A computer program that plays a good game of chess is not an example of artificial "intelligence," but then I don't think there is such an example. Computers aren't inherently intelligent, they are machines, and there will never exist a program that makes a computer sentient--not a computer as we know it today.
In the 1950's, an IBM researcher wrote a checkers-playing program for an IBM 704 that "learned" how to play by avoiding moves that had lead to lost games in prior attempts. Did the 704 "learn" anything? Of course not. The program kept a list of each move in all prior games and whether the game was won or lost. The program followed a set of rules laid down by the programmer.
We should avoid the tendency to attribute intelligence to computers. People like to be scared, and the idea of computers with free will has been beaten to death in science fiction stories because it is a scary idea. I guess the definition of artificial intelligence stops short of free will, but it is difficult to define the limits of the term. I think expert systems are tremendously useful, but they replicate the intelligence of human experts. Some would argue that this is artificial intelligence, and I don't have a problem with that. My problem is that people attribute scary meanings to the concept of artificial intelligence.
To answer your question specifically, John, I can't point to a good reference, but you might want to find books that discuss the work of Alan Turing if you haven't already seen them. I have a book called "Artificial Intelligence", Winston, P. H., 1977, Addison-Wesley, which begins "Artificial Intelligence is the study of ideas which enable computers to do the things that make people seem intelligent." Not a bad definition.
Keith Reid-Green
Princeton, NJ
KReid-Green@ets.org
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: keith reid-green <kreid-green@ets.org>
Subject: Re: Thinking and Intelligence and Computers
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
John Ahlstrom wrote: "Can someone send me some URLs or book titles where I can get useful definitions of "think" and "intelligent" that will let me think about this in an intelligent way?"
I think "Artificial Intelligence," like "memory" for "storage", is a misleading term. A computer program that plays a good game of chess is not an example of artificial "intelligence," but then I don't think there is such an example. Computers aren't inherently intelligent, they are machines, and there will never exist a program that makes a computer sentient--not a computer as we know it today.
In the 1950's, an IBM researcher wrote a checkers-playing program for an IBM 704 that "learned" how to play by avoiding moves that had lead to lost games in prior attempts. Did the 704 "learn" anything? Of course not. The program kept a list of each move in all prior games and whether the game was won or lost. The program followed a set of rules laid down by the programmer.
We should avoid the tendency to attribute intelligence to computers. People like to be scared, and the idea of computers with free will has been beaten to death in science fiction stories because it is a scary idea. I guess the definition of artificial intelligence stops short of free will, but it is difficult to define the limits of the term. I think expert systems are tremendously useful, but they replicate the intelligence of human experts. Some would argue that this is artificial intelligence, and I don't have a problem with that. My problem is that people attribute scary meanings to the concept of artificial intelligence.
To answer your question specifically, John, I can't point to a good reference, but you might want to find books that discuss the work of Alan Turing if you haven't already seen them. I have a book called "Artificial Intelligence", Winston, P. H., 1977, Addison-Wesley, which begins "Artificial Intelligence is the study of ideas which enable computers to do the things that make people seem intelligent." Not a bad definition.
Keith Reid-Green
Princeton, NJ
KReid-Green@ets.org
______________________________________________________________________
