Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!mit-eddie!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!gilbert From: gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Limits of AI Keywords: Intelligence Message-ID: <1806@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> Date: 1 Nov 88 10:42:29 GMT References: <1651@ndsuvax.UUCP> <4167@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> Reply-To: gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton) Organization: Comp Sci, Glasgow Univ, Scotland Lines: 33 In article <4167@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> dykimber@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Daniel Yaron Kimberg) writes: > Since we know that machines can do things people can't, and >since we know that people can use these machines to allow themselves to do >things they ordinarily wouldn't be able to do, then if we could just replace >the people with AI engines, we would have machines that could do more things >than their designers. Typical AI blinkers. Take the second piece of knowledge, that human-machine systems are more powerful than human systems for some tasks. Wow, true since the Archimedian screw if not before. Computers now allow intellectual work to be given mechanical support. However, you cannot sensibly talk about the machine withou talking about the human system it interfaces to. Hence AI folk don't talk sense, as none of them know the first thing about succesfully fielding a human-machine system :-) Furthermore, the first piece of knowledge is drivel. Machines cannot do what people cannot, only human-machine systems can. You can automate more of the task, but you can never fully automate anything. There will always be human operators of some sort. All systems interface with supersystems. > In my judgement, these things would constitute added intelligence. The question of what constitutes intelligence has nothing to do with your private judgements. Intelligence is a social construct, as has been unequivocably established by the miserable failure of psychometrics in this area. A good example of why the study of the individual apart from a social context is liable to generate somwe stupid academic activity. -- Gilbert Cockton, Department of Computing Science, The University, Glasgow gilbert@uk.ac.glasgow.cs !ukc!glasgow!gilbert