norman%ics@UCSD.EDU (Donald A Norman-UCSD Cog Sci Dept) (11/08/88)
Time for comment from a Cognitive Scientist on the appropriate
approach to the study of Intelligence.
As usual, John McCarthy has provided us with a cogent and coherent
analysis of the approaches one might take, but although his approach
appears sensible, I wish to disagree about the importance of several
aspects he downplayed.
McCarthy states:
Intelligence can be studied
(1) through the physiology of the brain,
(2) through psychology,
(3) through studying the tasks presented in the achievement of goals
in the common sense world.
True enough, except that I would add several others:
(4) through an analysis of intelligent behavior (in the abstract, as
is most frequently done in philosophy, and in some AI and
Cognitive Science endeavors)
(5) Through an analysis of how intelligent behavior results from
an interaction of individual cognition, the cognitions of
others, the social structures and cultures, and the physical
environment, [In part, what we here at UCSD call
"Distributed Cognition," which is highly related to the
recent work on "Situated Action" (See Lucy Suchman's book or
the papers of Agre and Chapman, for example).]
Real intelligence takes place as an interaction among people, in a
social environment, constrained by the particular experiences of the
participants and by the biological structures of the organism (not
just the brain, but also the sensory systems, the locomotive and
grasping mechanisms, and the whole regulatory system which interacts
dramatically with our cognitions.
Traditional analyses of intelligent behavior leave out the role of
emotions, of limited sensory and reasoning capabilities, of the
example-driven aspects of interpretation and memory retrieval and
decision making. These analyses make logical sense and can lead to
the development of intelligent machines, but they are not accurate
portrayals of human intelligence. They also (and as a direct result)
miss the creative aspect of human intelligence and fail to
characterize properly real human behavior, both the insightful
variety, and the class of things called "human error."
McCarthy talks of "common sense" but has he really studied what common
sense is about? One person's common sense is another's nonsense.
Common sense varies widely from culture to culture. I highly
recommend the paper by Geertz (an anthropologist -- one field McCarthy
left out):
Geertz, G. (1983). Local knowledge: Further essays in interpretive
Anthropology. New York: Basic Books. (Especially see the essay
"Common sense as a cultural system," pp. 73-93.)
In conclusion: John McCarthy has given a logical set of procedures to
follow in the study of Artificial Intelligence. They make sense and
will lead to advancement in the understanding of one form of
Artificial Intelligence.
But there are many possible forms of Artificial Intelligence, and it
is highly likely that dramtically different other approaches will also
prove fruitful.
However, I am interested in Real Intelligence, and for this domain,
McCarthy's approach is much too limited, for it neglects the powerful
and important contribution of biological structure, of social
interaction, of the role of cultural knowledge, and of the interaction
among individuals and the environment. We work in a world of
incomplete and erroneous knowledge, ambiguous situations and
communications, and partial specifications of all sorts, where much of
behavior is driven by the accidents of the environment or by
biological needs and limits. And almost all of our intelligent
behavior results from social interaction and by the use of artificial
artifacts (which, of course, were created by us to aid our thought and
communication proceses -- cognitive artifacts, I call them).
We can only study Real Intelligence by studying Real Organisms in
interaction with other organisms, their cultural knowledge, and their
environment.
don norman
Donald A. Norman [ danorman@ucsd.edu BITNET: danorman@ucsd ]
Department of Cognitive Science C-015
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, California 92093 USA
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