spaf@gatech.UUCP (08/12/83)
It just occurred to me today that most of the discussions
going on about use of genderless pronouns, homosexuals,
heterosexuals, personal habits, religion, and other interesting
habits, all have one point in common when we discuss them --
they're *human* activities/conditions.
Now stop for a moment and consider the Turing test. When you
read these messages from other users on the net, how do you
know that they are from people typing at some site rather than
some intelligent program? I would contend that a good definition
of humanity and intelligence could be formulated by someone
looking at the net traffic. The rabid flamers and fanatics
who condemn and insult would not meet that definition.
We develop new ideas daily in this field. A handicapped person
is freed from his or her limitations if they can communicate
with the rest of us at 300 or 1200 baud. They can stutter, or
be mute, they can be almost completely paralyzed, but their
minds and souls are still alive and free and can communicate
with the rest of us.
It doesn't matter if you are male or female, black, red, white,
green, tall, short, old, young, fat, smoking, farting, going
55 mph, attracted to members of the same sex, attracted to sheep,
or any possible variation of the human condition -- you are a human
intelligence at the other end of my network connection, and I
deal with you in a human manner. Once you show your lack
of tolerance or your inability to at least try to understand,
you show yourself to be less than human.
Discrimination really means the ability to differentiate amongst
alternatives. Prejudice and bigotry mean that you discriminate
based on factors which have no real bearing on the choice at hand.
I believe that the definition of "human intelligence" is that
it implies the ability to discriminate and the inability to
be a bigot.
I hope that some of the contributors to the net are simply AI
projects; I would hate to believe that there are people with so
much hate and intolerance as is sometimes expressed.
Comments?
--
The soapbox of Gene Spafford
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf.GATech @ UDel-Relay
uucp: ...!{sb1,allegra,ut-ngp}!gatech!spaf ...!duke!mcnc!msdc!gatech!spafoz@rlgvax.UUCP (THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ) (08/14/83)
I agree that it would be a shame if there were AI projects that had such hate and bigotry. I argue that it WOULD be possible for an AI project to exhibit the narrowmindedness and stupidity that we frequently see on the net. An interesting discussion, Gene, it is something to ponder. OZ seismo!rlgvax!oz
sts@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stanley T Shebs) (08/15/83)
Knew somebody once who argued that *all* humans are intolerant in some way, or at least prejudiced, in which case a netter who did *not* sooner or later express some sort of tolerance would be a candidate for AI project. Further discussion in net.ai stan the leprechaun hacker ssc-vax!sts (soon utah-cs)