Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!lfcs!arshad
From: arshad@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Arshad Mahmood)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: STRONG AND WEAK AI
Message-ID: <1273@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 3 Dec 89 20:22:52 GMT
References: <1698@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <11870@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Reply-To: arshad@lfcs.ed.ac.uk (Arshad Mahmood)
Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U
Lines: 24

In article <11870@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad) writes:
>Chris Malcolm asked for a definition:
>
>Those who believe in Strong AI believe that thinking is computation
>(i.e., symbol manipulation). Those who believe in Weak AI believe that
>computation is a means of studying and testing theories of (among other
>things) thinking, which need not be just computation (i.e., not just
>symbol manipulation).

I suspect Chris already knew this! I thought his question was do you feel 
comfortable if asked which school you belong to, and if not what would be
your response.

Chris was perhaps hinting at a hierachy of possible definitions, where
each person can sit at the position at which they feel comfortable, 
(week-AI, strong-AI, strong-AI without thermostats, ....). 
There may well be such a hierarchy but I have seen no evidence of it,
but then again I am a neo-Strong AIite (well you have to be, among so many
disbelievers!!).

A. Mahmood
Laboratory fo Foundations of Computer Science
Edinburgh University
Scotland


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