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