utoddl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Todd M. Lewis) (11/24/88)
It occurs to me that things which aren't intelligent never
make mistakes, whereas intelligent things can make mistakes.
This is not to say that the number of mistakes is an accurate
measure of intelligence. I haven't followed the AI lit. very
closely, but this seems like a fruitful way to think about
the problem of defining intelligence. A cat is very good at
being a cat; that it doesn't attain certain (human) skills
doesn't make it les intelligent. We would perform the Basic
Cat Skills quite poorly, yet we are intelligent. (Add your
own qualifications here ;-) The point is that cats make
mistakes from time to time. So do birds, dogs, snakes, etc.
But rocks NEVER make mistakes.
So on this basis I contribute my nutshell differentiation
test for intelligence/non-intelligence:
Intelligence is the capability of making mistakes.
--Todd M. Lewis
(Now, where is my asbestos suit?)josh@klaatu.rutgers.edu (J Storrs Hall) (11/24/88)
> Intelligence is the capability of making mistakes. >--Todd M. Lewis I think this is derivative rather than definitive. We would call a person who killed ten people a murderer, but we wouldn't call a tornado which did so, a murderer. A mistake is defined as (webster) "A wrong action or statement proceeding from faulty judgement, inadequate knowledge, or inattention." Thus to be able to make a mistake implies judgement, knowlege, or attention. What are those? To define "mistake" completely, you have to work out basically the same set of concepts as for "intelligence". How about: Intelligence is the capacity to do actions, make statements, exercise judgement, believe knowledge, and pay attention. --JoSH