X-Message-Number: 8582 Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 23:29:22 -0400 From: Michael Riskin <> Subject: Intelligence I am new to these electronic discussions of intelligence, human or artificial...which by the way makes me wonder why it is assumed that human intelligence is not also standardly referred to as " artificial" also. After all.. it was created and not by the human itself, unless one assumes it came about in terms of an immaculate conception or a spontaneous combustion. Anyway, one day god is talking to adam and he says ' Adam....i have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I created you with both a brain and a penis. The bad news is that you only have enough blood to run one at a time". Maybe Adam is half intelligent...or maybe he is simply intelligent enough to know that getting laid is more important than thinking, especially since god will take care of him anyway in the long run =2E (Anyone ever seen a sexy looking angel?...i havent). So...i have assumed from these discussions , that computer intelligence assumes the need to go through a specific series of analyses to come to a conclusion. You know...like deep blue playing chess, whereas maybe kasparov thinks ' ah, i know this one is pretty good and anyway i am too tired or hungover to spend much time right now in this benign situation, or even, let me make this move...i nevr did it before and it might be entertaining to see how it turns out and it might even require my opponent to take a lot of time figuring it out so i can rest". Mybe even kasparov knows that 12 times 12 is 144 ( that's right...isnt it?) with ZERO compute time. The question and the answer appears simultaneously...even on a NEW problem. maybe that is intelligence ...can any artificail intelligence do that? Now ....chess is a finite activity and unless kasparove can figure out a way to cheat and not get caught, he will ultimately have to lose. In some sense, intelligence is the ability to therefore cheat and not follow the rules and not get caught, which may be tricky to teach a computer that is by its' nature, designed to follow rules. Of course the rules have been taught it by a human, and while the machine may then learn and create its own rules, it is still bound by what it was originally taught. Cheating is actually a productive way of learning and acting intelligent actually since it means by definition exploring some aspect of a situation unprogrammed. = Well...can intelligence be measured by the degree of subjective pleasure it can generate for its owner? is there anything else than pleasure ( or pain) BTW? A woman might call her mate " intelligent" if he is able to produce plasure for her under any circumstances. I once had a young woman say to me " Michael...you have a most intelligent tonque" What do you think she meant by that? Undoubtably, a computer could drive a vibrating dildo in such a manner as to produce maximum stimulation, but could it also have her feel that she has followed the gender imperative and chosen a suitable mate? The hell with kasparov and blue. i say bring on traci lords and a sex machine. Anyway..thanks for indulging me. I have been working all day...got a bacterial infection and generally feel crappy and writing this cheered me up. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8582