Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ncar!tank!mimsy!secd.cs.umd.edu!anderson
From: anderson@secd.cs.umd.edu (Gary Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Summary: Dependency => Anxiety => Anthropomorphism
Message-ID: <15152@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 23 Dec 88 06:47:36 GMT
References: <4040a289.9d8d@hi-csc.UUCP> <4639@homxc.UUCP> <1904@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.UUCP
Reply-To: anderson@secd.cs.umd.edu (Gary Anderson)
Organization: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Lines: 52

The successful application of  artificial intelligence tools 
and techniques will increase the degree to which humans depend
on machines. Clearly, human kind will be able to construct 
smart, productive, efficient machines to carry out many important tasks.
These machines will  become  superior to humans 
along  certain dimensions (ie computational speed, physical strength, agility,
stamina) in specific applications.  As the performance of these machines 
improves, and their use becomes more pervasive, we will come to
rely on them more and more for our survival and comfort.
These ubiquitous machines will touch the lives of nearly everyone and
they will  be a source of great anxiety for many people.  


As these machines become more complex and more versatile,  
their behavior in new and unanticipated situations will become more 
difficult to predict. Even hindsight understanding  of the behavior 
of these machines in new situations may be very difficult to achieve.
I wonder if  even the developers of these machines will be able to 
distinguish  free will from poorly understood programmed behavior.
If the machines  become so smart and so complex that we cannot 
easily predict their behavior in new situations, we 
will have no recourse but to ask "them" what they would do.


It is my impression that a major reason for hoping to observe consciousness
and free will in our machines is that observing these anthropomorphic 
characteristics  would ease our understandable anxiety about depending on 
the behavior of machines we don't fully understand.
Consciousness would provide another 
channel for communicating with and "understanding"  
( or at least *ir*rationalizing  :-} )
the behavior of these complicated machines.

I wonder how effective this channel would be in reducing anxiety about
smart machines, and how useful it would be in predicting, monitoring 
and controlling their behavior. The results are mixed for human-human
exploitation of this channel. Additionally,  I think there would be some 
difficult moral/ethical issues associated with  manipulating the actions of 
an agent with "free will".

-- 
              Gary S. Anderson               | Probity, sincerity, candor,
                                             | conviction, the idea of duty,
              +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+      | are things which, mistaken, may
      email:  anderson@secd.cs.umd.edu       | become hideous, but which even
 U.S. Snail:  University of Maryland         | though hideous, remain great;
              Department of Economics        | their majesty, peculiar to the
              Room 3147c Tydings Hall        | human conscience, continues in
              College Park, MD 20742         | all their horror; they are
      Voice:  (301)-454-6356                 | virtues with a single vice ---
                                             |      error.
---------------------------------------------- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables