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From: u548652277ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (0040;0000009209;0;725;141;)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: elementary AI philosophy
Message-ID: <3430@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 1 Jan 89 22:14:43 GMT
References: <18464@santra.UUCP>
Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: u548652277ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (Ron Goldthwaite)
Organization: University of California, Davis
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> I invite the reader to do some elementary philosophy. Machines, I
> would say, don't love in the sense humans do, however sophisticated
> their cognitive mechanisms are. To answer the question whether
> animals can be said to love, a better biologist than me is required;
> but my intuitive answer is no.
 
"Love" is at least as nebulous a concept as "intelligence" is. Biologists have 
considered love; useful references are _The Evolution of Love_ (the author's 
name escapes me now; the book is at my office), and _The Tangled Wing_, by 
Melvin Konner. "Sociobiology" was founded on the study of apparent altruism.
 
> Accepting a new hypothesis can always lead to new results, and I
> havent't seen this one in AI textbooks.
 
"Love" overlaps with social commitments- that is, promises and trust. Joseph 
Weizenbaum's image of two parents exchanging meaningful glances over their 
sleeping infant evokes all these. In _Computers and Cognition_, I believe 
Terry Winograd and Fernando Flores attempt to analyze how language reflects 
and is shaped by social commitments. Of course, the most respectable citation 
for such discussion is the later Wittgenstein, as in his _Zettel_ and 
_Philosophical Investigations_.

A related analysis of language in relationships is made by the animal trainer 
(and philosopher) Vicki Hearne. She details the roles of training and 
discipline (both forms of commitment) in establishing communication between 
agents with differing intelligences. _Adam's Task_ is a useful summary.

If the current paridigm shift from pre-programmed symbol-processors to trained 
"neural nets" proves enduring for AI, I wonder what kind of relationships will 
_have_ to develop between such nets and their trainers? 

As a sociological, sometimes reflective, study of children growing up now 
among 'intelligent' machines, Sherry Turkle's _The Second Self: Computers and 
the Human Spirit_ describes the emotional spectrum the kids employ to relate 
to the gadgets.

Ron Goldthwaite / U. Calif., Davis / Psychology & Animal Behavior

"All fun stuff, you bet'ya -- but will it get me a job?"


Ron Goldthwaite / UC Davis, Psychology and Animal Behavior
'Economics is a branch of ethics, pretending to be a science; 
 ethology is a science, pretending relevance to ethics.'