Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!DJC%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA From: DJC%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA Newsgroups: net.ai Subject: Inscrutable Intelligence Message-ID: <13364@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Fri, 4-Nov-83 09:57:00 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.13364 Posted: Fri Nov 4 09:57:00 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Nov-83 02:55:32 EST Lines: 17 From: Dan Carnese There's a wonderful quote from Wittgenstein that goes something like: One of the most fundamental sources of philosophical bewilderment is to have a substantive but be unable to find the thing that corresponds to it. Perhaps the conclusion from all this is that AI is an unfortunate name for the enterprise, since no clear definitions for I are available. That shouldn't make it seem any less flakey than, say, "operations research" or "management science" or "industrial engineering" etc. etc. People outside a research area care little what it is called; what it has done and is likely to do is paramount. Trying to find the ultimate definition for field-naming terms is a wonderful, stimulating philosophical enterprise. However, one can make an empirical argument that this activity has little impact on technical progress.