Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!orc!bbn.com!BKort
From: BKort@bbn.com (Barry Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: What AI is exactly.
Message-ID: <59556@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 19 Sep 90 15:24:28 GMT
Sender: news@bbn.com
Organization: BBN Labs
Lines: 18
References:<3797@se-sd.SanDiego.NCR.COM> <3543@gara.une.oz.au> <10072@goofy.Apple.COM> <5907@plains.NoDak.edu> <59525@bbn.BBN.COM> <147@tdatirv.UUCP>

In article <147@tdatirv.UUCP> sarima@tdatirv.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes:
> ... solving the problem of making a computer curious might well
> be a major breakthrough in AI.

As I see it, emotions are an emergent property of any learning system.  To 
put it poetically, emotions are the expression of vanishing ignorance.  Or 
to put it more mathematically, if K(t) denotes accumulated knowledge over 
time, then emotions correspond to the time derivative, dK(t)/dt.

Thus any learning system, be it made of silicon or made of meat, will 
exhibit emotions indicative of its progress or lack of progress in 
acquiring significant new knowledge.


Barry Kort
Visiting Scientist
BBN Labs
Cambridge, MA