KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU ("Keith F. Lynch") (01/05/87)
From: DAVIS%EMBL.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
Subject: unlikely submission to the ai-list...
Of course, all this chat from computer chess players is meaningless -
nobody *really* believes in the will of the machine.
True.
This ascription of intentionality [to people] is not, I believe, a
mistake, simply on the grounds that intentionality simply does not exist.
It is an explanatory construct which creates an arbitrary class
(`intentional objects'), but has no real existence in the world ...
One minor flaw. I know that *I* have intentions. So there is at
least one thing in the world with intentions.
Given that I intend things, I find it plausible that other humans do
so as well. And given that human beings have intentions, I don't find
it totally impossible that machines might ever have intentions.
...Keith