Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!nic.MR.NET!thor.acc.stolaf.edu!taplin
From: taplin@thor.acc.stolaf.edu (Brad Taplin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Can Machines Think?
Keywords: Personal preference,
Message-ID: <11185@thor.acc.stolaf.edu>
Date: 7 Feb 90 14:25:51 GMT
Expires: 7 Feb 90 14:25:48 GMT
References: <1037@ra.stsci.edu> <6902@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <1995@moscom.UUCP> <4050@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <907@athen.sinix.UUCP> <1326@oravax.UUCP>
Reply-To: taplin@thor.stolaf.edu (Brad Taplin)
Followup-To: Ian Sutherland
Distribution: comp.ai
Organization: St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN
Lines: 45

In article <1326@oravax.UUCP> ian@oravax.odyssey.UUCP (Ian Sutherland) writes:

>>>>mamoth, fuzzy, almost "humane" computer...
>..........but why in the world would we want to build such a machine?
>For people who don't have enough flesh-and-blood friends?  If I were
>building a machine to help me with a task which needed to function
>like a human (e.g. a robot to perform or supervise a sophisticated
>task in a dangerous environment), I'd want it to have LESS of the
>kinds of chaotic, fuzzy vagueness described above than a human.

Depends on the application. My first inspiration for getting into AI
was the movie "2001". There's an application in which I would prefer
the "face", if not the acual algorithms, to appear more "humane".
This "friend in a box" could be found and activated at will to play
the perfect sounding board. Her/his memory and attidude could be
specifically designed to encourage and help the user forget it's just
a machine doing all the "multi-tasking" I imagine such a system doing
for me.

Perhaps we'd be wise to endow our "friendly computer" with two linked
minds, one for information processing and retrieval, and one for the
pleasant, clear, almost artful (if you believe a computer can produce
art) presentation of everything. The difference between such machines 
and today's computers could be as important (or un- if you like) as
that between a stark office and a warmly decorated one. Some won't
care, but most of us would find it much easier to work in the more
comfy environment. Sorry if I've offended your spartan nature.

>>...medeival monks and clay models.........
>> (some experimented with static electricity!) etc in order to give
>> them the spirit of life.

Who was that again? 1500s some monk wasn't he? Buried models, seeded with
sperm or something, forty days in horse dung. The products had a name?

>The likening of AI to alchemy has got to be one of the most apt
>metaphors I've ever heard ...

ditto... but what fun to know we're onto something, even if 
our current understanding is riddled with wild presumptions. 
-- 
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  "...I've gotten two thousand, fourteen times smarter since then..."
B.R.T c/o Jan Aho St.Olaf Northfield MN 55057 taplin@thor.acc.stolaf.edu
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