Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!mips!wdl1.wdl.loral.com!wdl1!mikeb From: mikeb@wdl31.wdl.loral.com (Michael H Bender) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: AI - the real problem Message-ID: Date: 1 Feb 91 19:57:21 GMT References: <22951@well.sf.ca.us> Sender: root@wdl1.wdl.loral.com (SUPER USER) Distribution: comp Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories Lines: 25 In-Reply-To: nagle@well.sf.ca.us's message of 31 Jan 91 19:10:25 GMT Nntp-Posting-Host: wdl31 John Nagle writes: .... There is a bit of hubris in trying to address human-level intelligence from our present level of ignorance .... We will not achieve lizard-level competence until we have ant-level competence well in hand. We will not achieve rodent-level competence until we have lizard-level competence. And we will not achieve primate- level competence until we can build rodent-level brains. And until we have achieved primate-level competence, we will not successfully build a general-purpose human-level AI. The only problem I have with this argument is that if we were to just focus on "building up" AI competence from lower-level components, we would ignore one of greatest sources of information: our ability to introspect about our cognitive processes. It is this ability which has led to the development of expert system technology, the GPS and its follow-ons, and so on. Clearly, AI will be more successful when it marries the cognitive approach, which has been so popular of late, and the "developmental" approach which John recommends. But that does not mean we should go to the other extreme and ignore the "higher-level" aspects of human intelligence. Mike Bender