Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!umix!uunet!steinmetz!ge-dab!codas!novavax!maddoxt
From: maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures,comp.ai
Subject: Re: The future of AI [was Re: Time Magazine -- Computers of the Future]
Keywords: AI, research program
Message-ID: <426@novavax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 88 16:33:18 GMT
Expires: 16 Apr 88 16:33:13 GMT
References: <8803270154.AA08607@bu-cs.bu.edu> <962@daisy.UUCP> <4640@bcsaic.UUCP> <1134@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox)
Organization: Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!umix!uunet!steinmetz!ge-dab!codas!novavax!maddoxt
From: maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures,comp.ai
Subject: Re: The future of AI [was Re: Time Magazine -- Computers of the Future]
Keywords: AI, research program
Message-ID: <426@novavax.UUCP>
Date: 16 Apr 88 16:33:18 GMT
Expires: 16 Apr 88 16:33:13 GMT
References: <8803270154.AA08607@bu-cs.bu.edu> <962@daisy.UUCP> <4640@bcsaic.UUCP> <1134@its63b.ed.ac.uk>
Reply-To: maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox)
Organization: Nova University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

In article <1134@its63b.ed.ac.uk> gvw@its63b.ed.ac.uk (G Wilson) writes:

>I think AI can be summed up by Terry Winograd's defection.  His
>SHRDLU program is still quoted in *every* AI textbook (at least all
>the ones I've seen), but he is no longer a believer in the AI
>research programme (see "Understanding Computers and Cognition",
>by Winograd and Flores). 
>
	Using this same reasoning, one might given up quantum
mechanics because of Einstein's "defection."  Whether a particular
researcher continues his research is an interesting historical
question (and indeed many physicists lamented the loss of Einstein),
but it does not call into question the research program itself, which
must stand or fall on its own merits.
	AI will continue to produce results and remain a viable
enterprise, or it won't and will degenerate.  However, so long as it
continues to feed powerful ideas and techniques into the various
fields it connects with, to dismiss it seems remarkably premature.  If
you are one of the pro- or anti-AI heavyweights, i.e., someone with
power, prestige, or money riding on society's evaluation of AI
research, then you join the polemic with all guns firing.  
	The rest of us can continue to enjoy both the practical and
intellectual fruits of the research and the debate.