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From: throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: RE: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Message-ID: <1973@xyzzy.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 88 21:22:09 GMT
References: <490@soleil.UUCP>
Organization: Data General, RTP NC.
Lines: 41

> peru@soleil.UUCP (Dave Peru)
> There is a misunderstanding what I meant by [...my definition of
> Intelligence...] especially [...the part reading "know which
> problems are unsolvable." ...]

> Human beings KNOW the "halting problem for Turing machines", my point is
> that machines can NOT know the "halting problem for Turing machines".

But there is no single "halting problem for Turing machines".  There
is only the halting problem for a particular machine programed in a
particular way.  Other "machines" can "know" the problems of some
given machine.

> Please describe how you would give this knowledge to a computer.

If by "this knowledge", is meant the ability to solve the halting
problem for all possible machines, it is of course impossible.  But
then again, there is no particular reason to think that humans can
solve the problem for all machines either, as pointed out in
Hofstadter's rebuttal to Lucas in "The Mind's I".

The rest of Dave's posting boils down to the notion that

> Finite machines cannot understand "infinity".

... which seems an interesting, though unsupportable assertion.  All
that is needed to model/understand "infinity" is the notion of
boundlessness.  Finite machines can encompas this notion easily, as in
symbolic mathematical systems dealing with infinite series, and prolog
and like systems having the ability to specify "infinite" lists or
sequences.

Further, is there any reason to suppose that humans are "infinite" in
any relevant respect?  I see no particular reason to suppose so.

--
#2:  ... just think of what we'll have!
#6   A row of cabbages.
#2   But highly educated cabbages!
     --- from "The Prisoner"
-- 
Wayne Throop      <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw