NICK@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (Nick Papadakis) (05/27/88)
Date: Tue, 10 May 88 09:44 EDT
From: Stephen Robbins <Stever@WAIKATO.S4CC.Symbolics.COM>
Subject: AIList V6 #97 - Philosophy
To: AIList@SRI.COM
Resent-Date: Tue, 10 May 88 12:37 EDT
Resent-From: Ken Laws <LAWS@KL.sri.com>
Resent-To: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu
Date: 6 May 88 22:48:09 GMT
From: paul.rutgers.edu!cars.rutgers.edu!byerly@rutgers.edu (Boyce Byerly )
Subject: Re: this is philosophy ??!!?
2) In representing human knowledge and discourse, it fails because it
does not recognize or deal with contradiction. In a rigorously
logical system, if
P ==> Q
~Q
P
Then we have the tautology ~Q and Q.
If you don't believe human beings can have the above deriveably
contradictory structures in their logical environments, I suggest you
spend a few hours listening to some of our great political leaders :-)
There's also an issue of classification, with people. How do they even \know/
something's a Q or ~Q?
One of the most fascinating (to me) moments in the programming class I teach is
when I hand out a sheet of word problems for people to solve in LISP. If I
call them "mini program specs," the class grabs them and gets right to work.
If I call them "word problems," I start to get grown men and women telling me
that "they can't \do/ word problems." Despite their belief that they \can/
program!
It seems to be a classification issue.
------------------------------
Date: 6 May 88 23:05:54 GMT
From: oliveb!tymix!calvin!baba@sun.com (Duane Hentrich)
Subject: Re: Free Will & Self Awareness
In article <31024@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort) writes:
>Why then, when a human engages in undesirable behavior, do we resort
>to such unenlightened corrective measures as yelling, hitting, or
>deprivation of life-affirming resources?
Probably some vague ideas that negative reinforcement works well. Or
role-modeling parents who did the same thing.
For the same reason that the Enter/Carriage Return key on many keyboards
is hit repeatedly and with great force, i.e. frustration with an
inefficient/ineffective interface which doesn't produce the desired results.
Yeah. I've noticed this: if something doesn't work, people do it longer,
harder, and faster. "Force it!" seems to be the underlying attitude. But in my
experience, slowing down and trying carefully works much better. "Force it!"
hasn't even been a particularly good heuristic for me.
Actually, I wonder if it's people-in-general, or primarily a Western
phenomenon.
-- Stephen