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From: markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Turing Test: opinions on an idea
Message-ID: <12131@uwm.edu>
Date: 14 May 91 15:25:33 GMT
References: <1991May13.133711.102@athena.mit.edu>
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In article <1991May13.133711.102@athena.mit.edu> mlevin@jade.tufts.edu writes:
(Store everything and fake intelligence by a table look-up)

No memory technology will ever allow you to store a massive amount of
information such as the corpus of all possible English conversations.

Anyway, if it could store that much information AND retrieve it in a short
time, hey, it's pretty damn intelligent on grounds of its efficient retrieval
alone!

So here's a more interesting question to ask: if I have a large body of
information at hand and am able to access anything I want by content in such
a short time that nobody even knows I'm using "external" sources, then do I
"know" that information??!

Consider the same question, especially if that retrieval is controlled via a
direct communication link between the brain and database.

My answer is: yes.  I know the information because the information sources are
now a part of my extended nervous system solely in virtue of my ability to
rapidly access it.  It's like an appendage to my body in exactly the way my
arms and legs are.

Therefore, it is possible for me to know everything and become adept at every
field of science despite my "personal limitations".

So: right now I know 19 languages, know the gory details of the goegraphy of
every place on the planet, know the details of world history, of every player
in major league baseball from '75 and before, of all of physics, biology, etc
etc. :)