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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Discovering What Nature Wants
Summary: How to form intentions wisely.
Keywords: Consciousness and Intentionality.  Knowledge and Wisdom.
Message-ID: <74553@linus.UUCP>
Date: 18 Oct 89 13:07:01 GMT
References: <357@massey.ac.nz> <2376@munnari.oz.au> <2394@uceng.UC.EDU> <2450@munnari.oz.au> <1090@oravax.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: The TaoLight Zone, Ste. Elsewhen
Lines: 36

In article <1090@oravax.UUCP> daryl@oravax.UUCP
(Steven Daryl McCullough) writes:

 > I believe that Barry Kort's belief that nature can form intentions is
 > essentially a slight strengthening of the Gaia hypothesis. (Am I right,
 > Barry?)

I believe my thesis is concordant with the Gaia Hypothesis.  Whether
it constitutes a "strengthening" is a technical matter which I am not
prepared to say.

 > Many people claim the same difficulty in understanding what it
 > means for a *human* *being* to have intentions.  How *do* we
 > separate attitudes from actions?  ...  Barry Kort suggests a
 > model of nature in which human beings serve the role of brains
 > with which nature thinks about the future and makes plans, etc.

I define a Goal as a feasible, desirable, and reachable future
state of affairs toward which one has committed resources of time,
energy, and materiel.  In order to reach the goal state, one needs
Ideas (an Idea is a possibility for changing the state-of-affairs)
and Strategies (a Strategy is a collection of interconnected ideas
for reaching a goal from a known starting point).  This entire process
is called Planning (Planning is the art of choosing goals and
corresponding courses of action to reach selected goals).

The challenge in selecting goals is in defining the word "Desirable".
For the selection of desirable goals, one needs a Value System.
(A Value System is a collection of preferences that transforms
knowledge into wisdom.  Leadership begins with values.)

The next step beyond Artificial Intelligence is Artificial Wisdom.
It is not enough to imbue our computers with knowledge.  We must
also imbue them with values.  This is where Ethics meets AI.

--Barry Kort