Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!wdl1.wdl.loral.com!wdl1!mikeb From: mikeb@wdl35.wdl.loral.com (Michael H Bender) Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy Subject: Re: AI - the real problem Message-ID: Date: 13 Feb 91 20:25:12 GMT References: <22951@well.sf.ca.us> <3035@yarra-glen.aaii.oz.au> <1991Feb8.231547.28280@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> Sender: news@wdl1.wdl.loral.com Distribution: comp Organization: Ford Aerospace, Western Development Laboratories Lines: 39 In-Reply-To: dailey@frith.uucp's message of 8 Feb 91 23:15:47 GMT Chris Dailey writes: ... historical review of previous comments ... We also need to try to understand what all minds have in common. Which basic instincts that are common among all (somewhat intelligent) living creatures would need to be held in common by an artificial intelligence to truly be intelligent? (Of course we wouldn't want to limit ourselves to just these attributes -- maybe this would be a sufficient condition, but not a necessary condition.) Would survival be one of these traits? If so, would we give a machine the ability to control its own survival? Would we make it so it could intelligent enough to make sure we couldn't destroy it? If we are not willing to do so, could we actually create intelligence? (maybe a catch-22) What artificial intelligence is there that actually tries to mimic the basic attributes among various species? I would think that if we took a good look, we wouldn't find much (although I am not at all well versed with AI literature). Maybe that is where the challenge should lie. Maybe in attempting such a feat we would learn so much more about our own intelligence and about the other areas of AI. The basic problem with what you propose is that as you go "up" the evolutionary ladder you discover that these traits slowly change. (For instance, does an amoeba have a need to survive when it spits in half?) Clearly there are biological factors that affect our behavior, but they can be strongly effected by environmental and sociological factors. Often, we are responding to many different, contradictory, biological drives at the same time. So what you are proposing sounds very difficult to me. I suggest that you read Wilson (?) who wrote Sociobiology (or was it Biosociology?). By the way, do you really believe that there only is 1 (!) challenge? Mike Bender