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From: cam@edai.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Adaptive vs. intelligent (was Re: "Intelligence")
Keywords: learning
Message-ID: <422@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Jun 89 00:30:55 GMT
References: <6605@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu> <1319@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <6626@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>
Reply-To: cam@edai (Chris Malcolm)
Organization: University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Lines: 18

In article <6626@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu> pluto@beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Mark E. P. Plutowski) writes:
>   Evolution may be intelligent, by some definitions of
>   the term.  But, it is not a lifeform, it is not embodied 
>   within a living thing, ...
>

Are you sure about that? It certainly doesn't look like a lifeform, or
even a thing, if you happen to be around 2 meters tall, with a lifespan
of threescore and ten years, and a specious present of a largish
fraction of a second. But then, if a lifeform lived for millions of
years, minimally occupied a whole planet, and had a specious present of
thousands of years, for example, it would be pretty hard for us
ephemeral hot-heads even to notice it, let alone regard it as a thing of
some kind.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550
Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK