There is intelligence and there is consciousness.  Both have been mentioned in 
this discussion.

I believe that intelligence can be inferred from behavior but that 
consciousness cannot.  I further believe that either machines already have 
consciousness or that they never will.  I don't believe that machines currently 
have consciousness.  Therefore...

I might be wrong.

Frank

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz              (505) 995-8715 or (505) 670-9918 (cell)
Santa Fe, NM 87505           [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Howard
Sent: Monday, December 25, 2006 10:32 AM
To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The what is AI question

What if the analogy of intelligence is unexpected predictability? I can roll a 
pair of dice, and that is unpredictable; but it’s not unexpected. I expect a 
Gaussian curve of totals. 

A few thousand years ago, the states of the moon were unpredictable (eclipses, 
elevation, and to some extent, phases). Humans consequently animated it with 
intelligence by calling it Luna—the moon goddess. All deities have 
intelligence. The same occurred with the planets, weather; and even social 
conditions like love and war. Only when these things became expectedly 
predictable did they loose their intelligence. You all remember ELIZA! At least 
for the first five minutes of play, the game did take on intelligence. However, 
after review of the actual code did the game instantly lose it mystery. 
Kasparov bestowed intelligence on Deep Blue, which I’m sure the programmers did 
not.

In this sense, intelligence is not a property that external things have. It’s 
something that we bestow upon, or perceive in external things. Is not one of 
the all time greatest insults on one’s intelligence the accusation of being 
predictable?

I suspect that any measure of intelligence will be relative to the observer’s 
ability to predict expected causal effects and be pleasantly surprised—not too 
unlike the Turing Test.

Robert Howard
Phoenix, Arizona


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pamela McCorduck
Sent: Sunday, December 24, 2006 3:55 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The what is AI question


On Dec 24, 2006, at 2:47 PM, Giles Bowkett wrote:

On 12/24/06, phil henshaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm a little confused.   If AI is the art of replicating the mechanisms
of human intelligence with machines, doesn't that assume that brain
function is digital?   I don뭪 think that's been demonstrated as yet.

The metaphor makes sense, but the thing is, we really don't have
enough there to generalize from. In practical terms, most
implementations of AI tend to be very targeted. Like the techniques
which emulate inference and causality are very, very different from
the techniques which emulate language and grammar. (Just as an
example.) What you really have is not a grand unified theory of human
consciousness so much as a grab-bag of techniques that sorta work.
Some techniques are effective enough to offer insight into the
individual processes they emulate, but there really isn't anything
consistent enough to offer general insight into intelligence itself.

Perhaps.  Newell and Simon might disagree, and say that at a certain level of 
abstraction, the ability to create and manipulate symbols is the sign.

But I agree that AI has been targeted (to Minsky's loud regret) and we cannot 
yet draw from that a grand unified theory.  I'm serene; physics has been at it 
for a lot longer, and they're having trouble with grand unified theories too.

P.



"My idea of good company, Mr. Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed 
people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good 
company."

"You are mistaken," said he gently, "that is not good company, that is the 
best."

                                                Jane Austen, Persuasion




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