mcginnis@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (03/18/91)
The questions associated with any comprehensive discussion of the possibility of computer based intelligence are daunting. One must first nail down assumptions inherent in the question, such as: -What is intelligence? -Are humans intelligent (should _we_ even be asking the question?)? -What is a computer? -Is the human brain a mechanism? -Is human intellect nothing more than a process occuring within the human brain (that is, is there some supernatural component)? When I consider likely forms and characteristics of artificial intelligences it always seems to me that we humans may not need to worry so hard about the question. It may be that we can satisfy ourselves with experimenting with AI and trying to create artifical intelligences. Once we have succeeded in creating a worthy example of AI it will be able to announce its own existence and present its own arguments to convince us.