Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!rochester!yamauchi From: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Cog Sci Fi (was: STRONG AND WEAK AI) Message-ID: <1989Dec10.221449.8321@cs.rochester.edu> Date: 10 Dec 89 22:14:49 GMT References: <11870@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> <16033@megaron.cs.arizona.edu> <1989Dec9.200649.28014@cs.rochester.edu> Reply-To: yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) Organization: University of Rochester Computer Science Department Lines: 50 In article harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Stevan Harnad) writes: > >yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) of >University of Rochester Computer Science Department wrote: > >> My complaint about most AI programs is not the worlds are simulated, >> but that the simulated worlds often are very unlike any type of >> perceptual reality sensed by organic creatures. It's a matter of >> semantics to argue whether this is "intelligence"... >> It seems that one interesting approach to AI would be to use the >> virtual reality systems which have recently been developed as an >> environment for artificial creatures. Then they would be living in a >> simulated world, but one that was sophisticated enough to provide a >> convincing illusion for *human* perceptions. > >Illusion is indeed the right word! Simulated worlds are no more >"like" a reality than books are: They are merely *interpretable* >by *us* as being about a world. There is a *big* difference between a book and a virtual reality (or a movie, for that matter). When you read a book you are interpreting linguistic symbols, when you watch a movie you are processing raw sensory perceptions. Suppose virtual reality technology develops to the point where it is impossible for a human to tell an illusion from reality (this is already the case for still computer graphic images of some objects). In this case, the imaging patterns hitting the person's retina will be the same regardless of whether he is viewing the real world or a simulated one. Now, suppose that we can develop a program which can react to these images in the same way that a human can. Does it make any difference whether the inputs to the program come from the simulator or a pair of cameras observing the real world? Now, if you are arguing that it will be impossible in *practice* to build a simulator which has the complexity of the real-world, in terms of interactivity and modeling complex physical laws, then you may have a point. >The illusion is purely a >consequence of being trapped in the hermeneutic hall of mirrors. Actually, the illusion is the result of having very sophisticated graphics software... _______________________________________________________________________________ Brian Yamauchi University of Rochester yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu Computer Science Department _______________________________________________________________________________