Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!newsfeeds.net.uni-c.dk!newsfeed1.uni2.dk!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-hog.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!news.colorado.edu!not-for-mail From: Howard Brazee Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.beta,comp.lang.cobol,comp.lang.dylan,comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Einstein's Riddle Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 13:27:46 -0700 Organization: UCB Lines: 25 Message-ID: <3AAE82C1.9EEDE7BB@brazee.net> References: <3AACB567.A59B8497@Azonic.co.nz> <3AACE6CF.7F05484D@ieee.org> <0W8r6.178$fo5.14165@news.get2net.dk> <3AAD60F3.120F284A@ieee.org> <3AAE371A.2F9F596F@brazee.net> <3AAE7EC2.E11AFC8D@ieee.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: brazee.cusys.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: peabody.colorado.edu 984515267 12287 204.228.68.77 (13 Mar 2001 20:27:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@colorado.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 13 Mar 2001 20:27:47 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD NSCPCD47 (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.ai.neural-nets:67547 comp.lang.apl:29378 comp.lang.awk:17142 comp.lang.beta:12747 comp.lang.cobol:102587 comp.lang.dylan:24166 comp.lang.forth:78549 Jerry Avins wrote: > It's the same way with animal intelligence. People have long maintained > that what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is ____. > (Pick one or insert your own: tool making; verbal communication; self > consciousness; tool use; altruism; symbolic reasoning.) As soon as an > instance of _____ is demonstrated in animals, it is removed from the > list, sometimes replaced by another. What's funny is when we pick "man kills his own kind". Even if we are unique by being bad, it is preferable to not being unique. But this is just as false as "man is the only animal which dreams". Same things happen with AI. As soon as one criterion is met, it is discarded. I have read that the hardest things to do are from early in the evolutionary ladder. Making a chess playing robot is easier than making one run or swim well. About a year ago, I read an article in the Smithsonian. This guy was making very dumb robots without the type of programming we think of. They worked. He would break off a leg and they would still crawl ahead like a bug. The first thing I did was turn the magazine over to make sure it wasn't the April issue, but it appeared to be serious. If this has a future, it is a fascinating one which I haven't seen in any SF. (although Hogan had a novel with evolutionary robots which this could fit in).