Randy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> excribió: > I'm thinking of something like this: when a person is curious or has > aquestion about something they can go out in the world - to other > persons, the internet, a book, database, etc. - and acquire new > information, which would then answer their question or questions or > lead to additional questions or thoughts or other answers. This > could be part of a process ofproblem-solving or making a decision > (with both decisions and problems being questions or perhaps sets of > questions). So wondering if computers could be developed to simulate > this process, i.e. the natural process ofhow the human mind works > when it plans, etc. (as described, for instance, by David Allen, in > "Getting Things Done, chapter 3 on the natural planning process). And > could computers have more choices than the two they nowhave in > answering every question, i.e. operate on something other than > binary?
Computers don't have to think like humans to be successful. Robots don't have to act like humans to be successful. Other organisms...
Sometimes doing a task extremely well in succession with other tasks is more important than a lot of thinking and analyzing. Look how well some animals survive with their own special skills, even though their thought processes are very primitive. Ants and hornets will survive. Cockroaches may not. That depends on adaptation, not intelligence.
The Voyager interstellar mission, launched in 1977, that was supposed to last 5 years, yet 30 years later Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are still collecting data and sending it back to Earth, and are expected to be useful for another 20 years or so. They are designed to conduct 10 different scientific experiments, and have done very well, considering the simple yet elegant systems they use. Similarly the Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are designed to take orders from the scientists, but make simple 'decisions' on their own. That mission was designed to last 90 days. They landed on Mars in January 2004 and are still exploring [Spirit is "resting" for the winter; Opportunity is exploring a crater, http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]. Neither project used extremely powerful computers. Rather they used the ones most likely to do their tasks well, and in the case of the Rovers, the computers were designed to be updated at a long distance. [self-portraits - Spirit, Opportunity, http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20060104a.html, http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?id=1518]
It will be exciting to learn how the human mind works. However, if computers progress to a point where they can "think"--whatever that means--it's possible that the process could be very unhuman-like, although powerful. Simulating a process is not thinking--IM a bot and see. Could we even recognize an intelligent being or computer or robot from another planet/galaxy? How will you know when your computer is thinking? Binary is working well enough now--does it need to be replaced when computers become organic?
Betty --- There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
