Your thermostat example can be used to show what I am talking about. The thermostat has an algorithm that says when the temperature gets below some X amount, turn on the burner and fan until the temperature rises to at least some X+N amount. You get to set the X amount. It doesn't have a table that says at exactly 69.1 turn on and turn off at exactly 70.3 as the temperature reading might never register exactly 69.1 or 70.3. If you made a database with enough entries and fine enough detail, you could just look up turn on and turn off points for any recorded temperature but isn't just using the simple algorithm a better solution? I think if the goal was no create intelligence that this would be even more important.
When I was in Physics in high school, I could have memorized all the formulas for my exams but instead, I found that by knowing only a few basic formulas I could derive all the others I needed during the exams. The problem is you have to know/understand how the formulas interrelate etc. When my kids were growing up, I tried to minimize the number of explicit rule/punishment combinations in modifying their behavior. Instead, I put forward policies and variable punishment so that it was much harder for my kids to get around the rules and so the punishment could always fit the crime. With a relatively small number of policies (analogous to the algorithms above), I could look after a much larger set of problems than I could by just resorting to a set of mindless rules. Working out how the policies were broken in each case and what appropriate punishment is much harder than just using a set of rigid rules but it is much more intelligent(just) don't you think? Do we divine the rules/laws/algorithms from a mass of data or do we generate the appropriate conclusions when we need them because we understand how it actually works? David Clark ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles D Hixson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <agi@v2.listbox.com> Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 11:02 AM Subject: Re: [agi] Project proposal: MindPixel 2 > David Clark wrote: > > I agree with Ben's post that this kind a system has been tried many times > > and produced very little. How can a collection of "Cats have claws; Kitty > > is a cat; therefore Kitty has claws." relate cat and kitty and that kitty > > is slang and normally used for a young cat. A database of this type seems > > to be like the Chinese room dilemma where even if you got something that > > looked intelligent out of the system, you know for a fact that no > > intelligence exists. ... > > > > David Clark > > > > > I'm not certain that I'm convinced by that argument. I tend to feel > that as we approach the base level, intelligences DO decompose into > pieces that are, themselves, not intelligent. (Otherwise one gets into > an "It's turtles all the way down!" kind of argument.) > > Partially it's a matter of definition. Is a thermostat intelligent? To > me the answer would be "Yes, at the most basic possible level" (i.e., I > wouldn't consider a thermocouple intelligent.) A thermostat maintains a > homeostasis, and to me that is one of the most basic kinds of > intelligence. I can easily see that one could have a reasonable > definition of intelligence that was sufficiently specific AND excluded > thermostats as being too basic, but I'm willing to grant to thermostats > a basic amount of intelligence. I'm also willing to grant that to > "logic engines". And to many other things that I see as pieces of an > AGI. They aren't "general intelligences", and I'm not totally convinced > that such things can, even in principle, exist. (Goedel's results seem > to imply otherwise. No system can be both complete and consistent.) > Still, we are an existence proof that something better than we've been > able to build so far is possible. I suspect that we shave on both > completeness and consistency, and that's probably an indication of > what's needed to come any closer than we are. > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303 ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=303
