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On 5/26/10 18:13 , Kevin Wright wrote:
> So the uselessness of this conversation is now predicated on the
> ability of computers to achieve sentience?
>
It's true that this thread is one of the quirkiest, still it's amusing
and gives somes hint.
BTW, Jitesh, there's an email that you sent as a reply to my post, and
perhaps you sent only to me as I didn't see here on the list.
The point is interesting because, even though I think that Jitesh is
really too optimistic in his opinion about AI, he's forcing us to
define how "intelligent" has to do with software design. Indeed, there
are many kinds of "intelligence" for the humans and not all of them
are relevant to software development. But, generically speaking, the
word comes from the latin "intelligere" which means "to understand".
The whole point in software design is to describe with a formal
language a set of things to do. The thing has evolved through further
abstractions and today we're striving to have that formal language as
close as possible to the specifications (see TDD, BDD, DDD). Given
that, the fundamental ability for writing software is undertstanding
the customer needs - that is, it's a typical human and communication
skill. The greater chances for a project to fail in most cases aren't
related to technology, but to communications. Thus, an "intelligent
android" that wanted to develop software should really and completely
understand ("intelligere") the human language, together with context.
That is: either the android is intelligent as a human being, or it's
useless for software design. That's why emulating a rat's brain
doesn't impress me in this context.
- --
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people
[email protected]
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