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From: hakanson@orstcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: Semi-Summary of Halting Problem Disc - (nf)
Message-ID: <2283@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 3-Nov-83 03:46:00 EST
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.2283
Posted: Thu Nov  3 03:46:00 1983
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Organization: Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR
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#R:sri-arpa:-1308700:orstcs:2600004:000:1443
orstcs!hakanson    Nov  2 10:04:00 1983

A couple weeks ago, I heard Marvin Minsky speak up at Seattle.  Among other
things, he discussed this kind of "loop detection" in an AI program.  He
mentioned that he has a paper just being published, which he calls his
"Joke Paper," which discusses the applications of humor to AI.  According
to Minsky, humor will be a necessary part of any intelligent system.

If I understood correctly, he believes that there is (will be) a kind
of a "censor" which recognizes "bad situations" that the intelligent
entity has gotten itself into.  This censor can then learn to recognize
the precursors of this bad situation if it starts to occur again, and
can intervene.  This then is the reason why a joke isn't funny if you've
heard it before.  And it is funny the first time because it's "absurd,"
the laughter being a kind of alarm mechanism.

Naturally, this doesn't really help with a particular implementation,
but I believe that I agree with the intuitions presented.  It seems to
agree with the way I believe *I* think, anyway.

I hope I haven't misrepresented Minsky's ideas, and to be sure, you should
look for his paper.  I don't recall him mentioning a title or publisher,
but he did say that the only reference he could find on humor was a book
by Freud, called "Jokes and the Unconscious."

(Gee, I hope his talk wasn't all a joke....)

Marion Hakanson		{hp-pcd,teklabs}!orstcs!hakanson	(Usenet)
			hakanson@{oregon-state,orstcs}		(CSnet)