Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!mcdchg!chinet!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!husc6!mit-eddie!mit-amt!turk
From: turk@mit-amt (Matthew Turk)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Limits of AI
Keywords: Intelligence
Message-ID: <3241@mit-amt>
Date: 29 Oct 88 19:49:23 GMT
References: <1651@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 28

In article <1651@ndsuvax.UUCP>, ncthangi@ndsuvax.UUCP (sam r. thangiah ) writes:
> 
> One of the students in my class raised a point that:
> "Man is not capable of producing a machine that is more intelligent than
> oneself".  Is this a valid statement?
> 
> I really do not know if this has been debated, but it does tell us the limits
> of achievements that can be attained by AI or does it ?
> 
> Sam

Yes, this has been debated ad infinitum.  It seems in the same category
of statement at:  "Man is not capable of producing a machine that is
stronger than oneself" or "...flies better than oneself" or "...multiplies
faster than oneself".  Of course it speaks of intelligence, this elusive
quality much more complex than strength, flight, or multiplication, but
the point remains the same -- the statement may possibly be proven wrong
(by some reasonable test such as a Turing test) but there seems to be no
way to prove that it is correct.  It remains an unverified statement of
faith.

The same of course applies to the statement "Man *is* capable of producing
a machine that is more (or as) intelligent than oneself".  Much of science
consists of people attempting to verify things they already believe
because of some kind of faith.  (Note faith = firm belief in something
for which there is no proof - Webster's)

	Matthew Turk