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From: pluto@zaius.ucsd.edu (Mark Plutowski)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Doug Lenat's "cyc" project
Summary: Impress me with a beetle first
Keywords: fundamentals, first steps
Message-ID: <12171@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 4 Aug 90 23:20:47 GMT
References: <1990Jul31.034417.19350@nixtdc.uucp> <2696@aipna.ed.ac.uk> <43632@apple.Apple.COM>
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In article <43632@apple.Apple.COM> lantz@Apple.COM (Bob Lantz) writes:
>cam@aipna.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:
>>In article <1990Jul31.034417.19350@nixtdc.uucp> doug@nixtdc.UUCP (Doug Moen) writes:
MOEN: My feeling is that someone is going to build an artificial
MOEN: mind sooner or later, and cyc is a plausible first step.

MALCOLM: I presume you agree that apes, cats, and dogs have minds? Perhaps even
MALCOLM: that beetles have minds? If so, how on earth is a program which can
MALCOLM: mimic one thing which _only_ humans can do a plausible first step??

LANTZ: Nit-picking.  While it is certainly *possible* to represent the
LANTZ: knowledge and common-sense reasoning of cats, dogs, etc.., it's
LANTZ: pretty uninteresting.  ...

Not to take away anything from the Cyc project, which may be an 
important step for AI, I must agree with Mr. Malcolm here, and
in particular, take exception to your immediately preceding remark, 
regarding the uninteresting thought processes of cats and dogs.

I reiterate, Cyc may provide a useful database of results, and may have 
practical applications. That's good enough for me and most to justify continuance.
But we would probably learn more about the fundamental principles underlying 
intelligence PER SE if we could model a beetle.  Having done that, we
can then move on to a Beatle, say Ringo.