Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!eplrx7!udel!princeton!njin!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!utoddl
From: utoddl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Errors and intelligence.
Summary: This is half baked.  Please don't fry me!
Keywords: Errors, mistakes, intelligence.
Message-ID: <5891@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 23 Nov 88 16:12:25 GMT
References: <448@uceng.UC.EDU>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 17

It occurs to me that things which aren't intelligent never
make mistakes, whereas intelligent things can make mistakes.
This is not to say that the number of mistakes is an accurate
measure of intelligence.  I haven't followed the AI lit. very
closely, but this seems like a fruitful way to think about
the problem of defining intelligence.  A cat is very good at
being a cat; that it doesn't attain certain (human) skills
doesn't make it les intelligent.  We would perform the Basic
Cat Skills quite poorly, yet we are intelligent.  (Add your
own qualifications here ;-)  The point is that cats make 
mistakes from time to time.  So do birds, dogs, snakes, etc.
But rocks NEVER make mistakes.
  So on this basis I contribute my nutshell differentiation
test for intelligence/non-intelligence:
    Intelligence is the capability of making mistakes.
--Todd M. Lewis
(Now, where is my asbestos suit?)