Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!venera.isi.edu!smoliar
From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Turing Test and Subject Bias
Keywords: Intelligence, Idea, Problem, Thinking
Message-ID: <8683@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 19 Jun 89 14:08:59 GMT
References: <3039@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1174@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <3075@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <56041@linus.UUCP>
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Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar)
Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute
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In article <56041@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) writes:
>In article <3075@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk
>(Gilbert Cockton) writes:
>
> > It is the idea that intelligence is a definable, measurable property
> > which is a perversion.
>
>Perhaps I am a bit perverted, but, when *I* use the word, "intelligence",
>I mean "the ability to think and solve problems".
>
>I define a "problem" as "an undesired state of affairs for which
>an appropriate idea has not yet been generated or agreed upon."
>
>I define "idea" as "a possibility for changing the state of affairs."
>
>I define "thinking" as "a rational form of information processing
>which reduces the entropy or uncertainty of a knowledge base, generates
>solutions to outstanding problems, and conceives goal-oriented courses
>of action."
>
>--Barry Kort


Let us leave aside issues of perversion (and perversity) and go back to
Gilbert's original remark.  Note that, whether or not we accept "I define"
as constituting a valid definition, Barry as left untouched the word
"measurable," which I, for one, find to be a critical part of Gilbert's
observation.  Barry, do you wish to comment on how you would work measurement
into your criteria?

Actually, Gilbert's remark is very much in sympathy with what Minsky says about
intelligence in THE SOCIETY OF MIND:

	A term frequently used to express the myth that some single
	entity or element is responsible for the quality of a person's
	ability to reason.

(Besides, I prefer "myth" to "perversion.")  After all, if you can isolate it
as a single entity, then you have a leg up on being able to define or measure
it.  (You still may not succeed, of course.  We still don't do a very good job
when it comes to defining "chair.")

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