ewp (01/17/83)
By accussing people of taking Datamation articles too seriously,
watmath!rggoebel has shown lack of familiarity with computer terminology, lack
of care in reading articles before replying, or forgot to add the
smiley face :-) at the end of his article. When a terminal or controller or
whatever is called intelligent, it is not done in the belief that it
possesses what is commonly referred to as "artificial intelligence". The
descriptor "intelligent" is used to distinguish these machines, with some
autonomous capabilities, from "dumb" ones, which only perform basic, atomic
functions as they come in. Thus, a terminal that allows you to do some local
editing is called intelligent, not because it will discuss Proust with you but,
because it allows you to work with a slightly greater degree of independance
from the computer than a dumb terminal could. Similarly, I would call my dog
an intelligent life form, since it can fend for itself somewhat, but I
wouldn't loan it my car, no matter how much it begged.
I never read Datamation,
Ed Pawlak
ihuxb!ewp