Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mtuxo!lzfme!jwi
From: jwi@lzfme.att.com (Jim Winer @ AT&T, Middletown, NJ)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Indictment
Summary: Human beings are not intelligent
Message-ID: <1421@lzfme.att.com>
Date: 20 Jun 89 13:59:06 GMT
References: <299@ucl-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 48

Jim Winer writes:

> > Apparently, you think that a system that learns unnecessary (and
> > possibly incorrect or un-useful) things is intelligent? What about
> > systems (like people on the radical left, right or center) who
> > "never stop learning" *incorrect* things? A better definition of an
> > intelligent system might be one that can cope with unanticipated
> > (or even random) situations.

Gordon@ucl-cs.UUCP replies:

> I agree with the last statement. The politics of left and right has
> appeared exactly as above, be it Thatcher & Kinnock or Stallman & Apple,
> Should this posting be to talk.politics.theory?
> 
> Maybe. The left and the right are both intelligent people. One says
> freedom/wealth/choice is growing, the other says that it is diminishing.
> They both believe (much of) what they say is the truth. And is it the
> truth from where they sit, with statistics prove it.

Jim Winer continues:

My point is that human beings, as a group, are not intelligent.
There does not seem to be any clear correlation between their
behavior and the presumed objective of happiness. (Wealth and power
are not happiness, but only states which are presumed by some to be
necessary or sufficient conditions to happiness. People who make
these presumptions are invariably proved wrong in that they don't
accheive a state of contentment.) There *may* be individual
exceptions. (Based on *my* life, and the life of everyone I have
ever met, that seems unlikely even though there are some rare
moments of rationality.)

We are attempting then, to create rational machines that model
irrational human behavior -- machines that pursue false goals for
dubious (or devious) reasons. Okay, so it's the best we can do. But
let's not lie to ourselves and call it intelligence. Let's call a
spade a spade and a pseudo-intelligent bomb-controller a weapon.

Jim Winer ..!lzfme!jwi 

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