Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!mit-amt!bc
From: bc@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Who else isn't a science?
Message-ID: <2618@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Date: 14 Jun 88 14:17:27 GMT
References: <13100@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> <3c84f2a9.224b@apollo.uucp> <10785@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <34227@linus.UUCP>
Reply-To: bc@media-lab.media.mit.edu.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (bill coderre)
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA
Lines: 73

In article <34227@linus.UUCP> marsh@mbunix (Ralph Marshall) writes:
>In article <10785@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) writes:
>>Ain't it wonderful?  AI succeeded by changing the meaning of the word.
......(lots of important stuff deleted)
>I'm not at all sure that this is really the focus of current AI work,
>but I am reasonably convinced that it is a long-term goal that is worth
>pursuing.

Oh boy. Just wonderful. We have people who have never done AI arguing
about whether or not it is a science and whether or not it CAN succeed
ever and the definition of Free Will and whether a computer can have
some.

It just goes on and on!


Ladies and Gentlemen, might I remind you that this group is supposed
to be about AI, and although there should be some discussion of its
social impact, and maybe even an enlightened comment about its
philosophical value, the most important thing is to discuss AI itself:
programming tricks, neat ideas, and approaches to intelligence and
learning -- not have semantic arguments or ones about whose dictionary
is bigger.

I submit that the definition of Free Will (whateverTHATis) is NOT AI.

I submit that those who wish to argue in this group DO SOME AI or at
least read some of the gazillions of books about it BEFORE they go
spouting off about what some lump of organic matter (be it silicon or
carbon based) can or cannot do.

May I also inform the above participants that a MAJORITY of AI
research is centered around some of the following:

Description matching and goal reduction
Exploiting constraints
Path analysis and finding alternatives
Control metaphors
Problem Solving paradigms
Logic and Theorem Proving
Laguage Understanding
Image Understanding
Learning from descriptions and samples
Learning from experience
Knowledge Acquisition
Knowledge Representation

(Well, my list isn't very good, since I just copied it out of the table
of contents of one of the AI books.)

Might I also suggest that if you don't understand the fundamental and
crucial topics above, that you refrain from telling me what I am doing
with my research. As it happens, I am doing simulations of animal
behavior using Society of Mind theories. So I do lots of learning and
knowledge acquisition.

And if you decide to find out about these topics, which are extremely
interesting and fun, might I suggest a book called "The Dictionary of
Artificial Intelligence." 

And of course, I have to plug Society of Mind both since it is the
source of many valuable new questions for AI to pursue, and since
Marvin Minsky is my advisor. It is also simple enough for high school
students to read.

If you have any serious AI questions, feel free to write to me (if
they are simple) or post them (if you need a lot of answers). I will
answer what I can.

I realize much of the banter is due to crossposting from
talk.philosphy, so folks over there, could you please avoid future
crossposts? Thank...

Oh and Have a Nice Day................................mr bc