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From: DPK100::DOURSON_SE@gmr.COM (Dourson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Epistemology of Common Sense
Message-ID: <8811230341.AA14355@BLOOM-BEACON.MIT.EDU>
Date: 16 Nov 88 23:47:00 GMT
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Bruce Nevin (#125, Mon, 7 Nov 88 11:21:08 EST), responding to
McCarthy (#121, 31 Oct 88  2154 PST), compares the common sense of
"social facts" with the common sense of physical facts.  He
states, 

   "Suppose we had an AI equipped with common sense defined
    solely in terms of physical facts.  This is somewhat like the
    proverbial person who knows the price of everything but the
    value of nothing." 

Knowledge of physical facts is an essential condition for knowing
the value of things.  The value of any thing is determined by what
it contributes to a person's survival and happiness.  The price of
a thing is determined by the resources and effort required to
create it.  Money is the means by which we measure both a thing's
value and its price. 

A person whose knowledge is defined solely in terms of physical
facts, i.e., in terms of reality, would know (or could determine)
both the value of anything (in terms of what it contributes to his
survival and happiness), and the price (in terms of his own
personal effort) he would have to pay to create it or to purchase
it from others.  Such a person knows that there is no such thing
as a "social _fact_"; and that survival and happiness are facts of
reality rooted in the natures of existence and man, not matters of
"social convention". 

A person who knows prices of things without knowing their value,
has never had to earn his money, his survival, or his happiness. 

A person whose values are based on social conventions, does not
think or act for himself, i.e., is not independent, and could not
survive and be happy on his own.

People talk a lot about equipping an AI with common sense and
goals, but seldom about equipping an AI with values and the
ability to make value judgements.  When they do mention values, it
is usually in terms such as "social 'facts'", "social
conventions", and so-called "higher values", all of which are a
lot of floating fuzzy abstractions that signify nothing. 

A value judgement is a precondition for a setting goal, which in
turn is a precondition for thought and action carried out to
achieve the goal.  Knowledge, common sense, and effort are means
to achieve the goal.  A successful AI will have the ability to
identify and explain the value to itself of a thing, and to
measure the thing's price in terms of its own time and effort. The
values an AI holds will be based on its nature and the conditions
required for it to exist, function, and survive.  These values
will not be a matter of "social convention". 

McCarthy stated that sociology is peripheral to the study of 
intelligence.  I submit that it is irrelevant.


Stephen Dourson