Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!venera.isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Causality (was: Re: Can Machines Think?) Message-ID: <11124@venera.isi.edu> Date: 27 Dec 89 02:36:21 GMT References: <11104@venera.isi.edu> <5795@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> Sender: news@venera.isi.edu Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 35 In article <5795@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu> lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Greg Lee) writes: >From article <11104@venera.isi.edu>, by smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen >Smoliar): >" ... The fundamental issue >" of understanding then becomes one of how agent A, with his personal set >" of schemata, can communicate with agent B, who may have quite a different >" set of schemata. ... > >It's really quite a riddle if you insist that understanding >and communication are all or none affairs, and that schemata >must be wholly shared or wholly disparate. Fortunately, there is no reason to be so insistent. Communication, as it is practiced in the real world among human beings, is hardly an all or none affair; and since I tend to follow Minsky's lead and avoid casual use of the word "understanding," you won't find ME trying to pass it off as binary- valued. I realize this will probably draw flames from a variety of corners, but do we want anything more from an artificial intelligence than an ability to get on in the world? This does not entail perfection. It only requires enough sense to get out of mistakes ("misunderstandings," if you prefer) when it becomes apparent that they have been made. (Would we ask any more of our President?) ========================================================================= USPS: Stephen Smoliar USC Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way Suite 1001 Marina del Rey, California 90292-6695 Internet: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu "For every human problem, there is a neat, plain solution--and it is always wrong."--H. L. Mencken