Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!cadre!geb
From: geb@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU (Gordon E. Banks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Message-ID: <1901@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Date: 22 Dec 88 14:57:34 GMT
References: <484@soleil.UUCP> <1654@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <1908@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <IXYmnvy00XoGA0UVFk@andrew.cmu.edu> <4040a289.9d8d@hi-csc.UUCP>
Reply-To: geb@cadre.dsl.pittsburgh.edu (Gordon E. Banks)
Organization: Decision Systems Lab., Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
Lines: 38

In article <4040a289.9d8d@hi-csc.UUCP> harper@hi-csc.UUCP (Paul L. Harper) writes:
>I am continually amazed at the faith of AI "researchers"
>(programmers?). I have seen nothing whatsoever from the AI
>community that indicates there is any hope of producing
>intelligence by running instructions on computers. 
>
>It is an incredible leap of faith, completely unfounded 
>by science, to assume that computers can obtain the human
>quality we call intelligence. Where is the scientific justification
>for the assumption? 

Let me try to briefly answer your question.  
The assumption derives from the following assumptions:

1. Intelligence is a function of the human brain.
2. The brain is a physical object and its functioning is
   explainable in terms of its organization and the laws of physics.
3. Given sufficient understanding of the composition and organization
   of the brain, and sufficient progress in technology, it should
   be possible to artificially create intelligence (or for Gilbert
   Cockton, a system capable of acquiring intelligence through
   appropriate socialization).

As far as creating a complete intelligence by "executing instructions",
I would have to know what you mean by that term.  If you are talking
about a Turing machine, then I would say that if you had one fast enough,
you could probably simulate all of the functions of the massively
parallel brain serially and create such an intelligence, but I seriously
doubt if that is the way it will be done (at least at first), since that
would require more knowledge than other approaches.

Of course if you do not accept the 3 assumptions (for example, if you
believe that intelligence is a function of man's spirit rather than
the brain) then you have a logical reason for rejecting the idea
of an artificial intelligence.  (Even that objection might be met
with the notion that given a sufficiently complex machine, a spirit
might be found to inhabit it, as well, although that is truly a leap
of faith!)