Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kwb@hpmtlx.lvld.hp.com ($Keith_Blackwell) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Religion Message-ID: Date: 5 Nov 90 10:09:33 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu / hpmtlx:soc.religion.christian / mclarke@ac.dal.ca / 12:05 am Oct 22, 1990 / | |...Artificial Intelligence software (Expert Systems) which attempts to emulate |the human reasoning process is now restricted by the current power of |computer equipment. Having done some research into cognitive modelling while in Graduate School, I believe this statement is a gross misunderstanding. Sure, the "current power of computer equipment" may be a limiting factor in some sense, and that is one factor that is quickly changing. But the most important limiting factor is our own ignorance of the complexities of the human cognitive processes. That factor is not going to change rapidly. Some fascinating theories have come out and been refined in the past 30 years, and many of those could be combined and implemented in some emulation system running on super-hardware alluded to later in the above post. But the very practical problem of how to get such a system rolling would take enormous person-resources to solve. Having gotten a vision for the kind of research necessary to accomplish the goal of having person-emulation similar to what we find in science fiction, I am convinced that we won't see any actual working models come anywhere close for another 70 or so years. Technology can increase a million fold, and we still don't know what do with that technology. The questions we need answers to simply cannot be answered within the next 20 years. If you are interested in this field, I suggest you browse through issues of the _Cognitive_Science_ journal at a research library. As for morality, others have answered that issue well (and not so well). This may become an issue when (connectionist?) systems begin to take on responsibilities within the realm of interpersonal relationships, but I don't think that will happen for many decades. --- Keith Blackwell