alexc@dartvax.UUCP (Alex Colvin) (07/06/84)
AI in the news: The 10 July 1984 issue of Weekly World News has the cover headline --------------------------------------------------------------------- `It was cold-blooded murder' says grieving wife J E A L O U S C O M P U T E R K I L L S T O P S C I E N T I S T Old machine electrocutes owner -- after he buys a more advanced model --------------------------------------------------------------------- (I'm unable to reproduce their usual 100pt type). The essence of the article is that one Chin Soo Ying, Chinese inventor had been building the computer since 1950. After he had decided to build a more modern machine he was electrocuted at the controls when the computer burned out. The News quotes his wife, Tzu Lin. "Chin was murdered in cold blood by the computer he had created. "He had given life to his creation. He thought of it as a woman, had even given it a woman's name. "He spoke to the thing adoringly as Tsen Tsen. "Through his genius he had programmed it to respond to his words of love, to excite him beyond the limits of what a mortal woman could hope to achieve. "Somehow the thing took on a mind of its own. The computer fell in love with my husband. "For 34 years they were closer than lovers. "I tried to fight for my husband. But how could I compete with a machine? There was no room in his life for me. Finally, I left him. "Tsen Tsen was a huge computer. It covered three walls of one room in our home. I used to listen in amazement as he talked to it like a schoolboy in love. And the computer would respond like a worshipful woman. "But Chin one day decided to build a newer, more modern computer. "The trade agreements with America made the technical information and the components available to him for the project. "He began working on the new computer day and night. "And he even gave it another woman's name -- Woo Shi. "There is an old Chinese proverb that says vengeance is nourished in the heart of a spurned woman. "I am thoroughly convinced that Chin's rejection sparked the fires of hate within the old computer. "She could not bear to lose her creator to another. He had been hers for so many years and if she could not have him, no one else would. "Somehow Tsen Tsen programmed herself to electrocute Chin. "And with the death of that incredible man, she no longer had a reason to live. "She overloaded her circuits and destroyed herself. "That computer committed murder and suicide". A longtime friend and computer programmer expressed the opinion that the death was an accident, but noted "A computer programmed as his was could be capable of jealousy. There's no doubt in my mind his computer had unusual qualities. "That may be difficult to believe, but we are learning astonishing things about computers every day. "With such machines, anything is possible, jealousy and even murder". --------------------------------------------------------------------- So much for a very promising AI effort.
yba@mit-athena.ARPA (Mark H Levine) (07/06/84)
Wait! We have five days to avert this disaster! Take your Wu Shin and DO something! -- yba%mit-heracles@mit-mc.ARPA UUCP: decvax!mit-athena!yba