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From: DIETTERICH@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: Clarifying my "AI Challange"
Message-ID: <14113@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 25-Nov-83 20:52:47 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.14113
Posted: Fri Nov 25 20:52:47 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Dec-83 21:27:51 EST
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From:  Tom Dietterich <DIETTERICH@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>

Although I've written three messages on this topic already, I guess
I've never really addressed Ralph Johnson's main question:

        My question, though, is whether AI is really going to change
        the world any more than the rest of computer science is
        already doing.  Are the great promises of AI going to be
        fulfilled?

My answer: I don't know.  I view "the great promises" as goals, not
promises.  If you are a physicalist and believe that human beings are
merely complex machines, then AI should in principle succeed.
However, I don't know if present AI approaches will turn out to be
successful.  Who knows?  Maybe the human brain is too complex to ever
be understood by the human brain.  That would be interesting to
demonstrate!

--Tom