eliot@mind.UUCP (Eliot Handelman) (04/05/88)
Intelligence draws upon the resources of what Dostoevsky, in the "Notes from Underground", called the "advantageous advantage" of the individual who found his life circumscribed by "logarithms", or some form of computational determinism: the ability to veto reason. My present inclination is to believe that AI, in the long run, may only be a test for underlying mechanical constraints of of theories of intelligence, and therefore inapplicable to to the simulation of human intelligence. I'd like to hear this argued for or against. Best wishes to all, Eliot Handelman
maddoxt@novavax.UUCP (Thomas Maddox) (04/16/88)
In article <2051@mind.UUCP> eliot@mind.UUCP (Eliot Handelman) writes: >Intelligence draws upon the resources of what Dostoevsky, in the "Notes from >Underground", called the "advantageous advantage" of the individual who found >his life circumscribed by "logarithms", or some form of computational >determinism: the ability to veto reason. My present inclination is to believe >that AI, in the long run, may only be a test for underlying mechanical >constraints of of theories of intelligence, and therefore inapplicable to >to the simulation of human intelligence. If it's AI, it will incorporate irrationality. As you, after Dostoevsky, imply, intelligence is a superset of reason. Think of the human organism as a bag of perceptions and hormonal interactions with the mind as the way station for the whole exceedingly tangled perceptual/emotional/intellectual circus. At present, we have only begun to understand the complexities of the brain's neurotransmitter interactions, so we are only beginning to know the brain, but we have already grasped that that the mind's complexity far exceeds earlier estimates. If you're interested in seeing my best shot at portraying these ideas, look for a few sf stories: "The Mind like a Strange Balloon" in the April, 1985 _Omni_, "Snake Eyes" in the April, 1986 _Omni_ (and in the _Mirrorshades_ anthology, coming out in paperback almost instantly), and "The Robot and the One You Love" in the March, 1988 _Omni_. They are my attempts at thinking through these problems.