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From: marty1@houem.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: looking for reference for "British Museum" quote
Message-ID: <780@houem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 15-Jan-87 18:50:12 EST
Article-I.D.: houem.780
Posted: Thu Jan 15 18:50:12 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 17-Jan-87 04:41:49 EST
References: <355@unc.unc.UUCP> <3800001@nucsrl.UUCP> <1171@whuts.UUCP> <1281@lifia.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel
Lines: 29
Summary: The chimps' claim is false, and it says something about AI

In article <1281@lifia.UUCP>, csma@lifia.UUCP (Christian de Sainte Marie) writes:
> >In article <3800001@nucsrl.UUCP>, ram@nucsrl.UUCP (raman renukanthan) writes:
> >> >>"If a hundred chimpanzees were to be set before a hundred typewriters   
> >> >>typing for thousands of years at random.  They would eventually         
> >> >>duplicate all of the works contained in the British Museum."            
> ....
> PS: does this discussion really belongs to comp.ai?

It has already been established by previous discussion that in terms of
probability theory the chimps will eventually succeed, but it will take
longer than various limits, including the expected life of the universe.

If the claim of the chimps were true, it would say that any stupid
machine can duplicate all the creativity of humans, and all it takes is
incremental improvement in the machines to do it faster and better.

But if the chimps' claim is not true, and in practical terms it is not,
then there is a qualitative difference between a bunch of chimps and a
bunch of people, and we have to work really hard to come close to
making a machine that does what people do.

Put another way: the hypothesis that all the works in the British
Museum could have been created by chance is rejected.

But I admit that the source of the quotation is a side issue.

M. B. Brilliant					Marty
AT&T-BL HO 3D-520	(201)-949-1858
Holmdel, NJ 07733	ihnp4!houem!marty1