From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!strath-cs!ps Wed Aug 12 16:52:51 EDT 1992
Article 6601 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!strath-cs!ps
>From: ps@cs.strath.ac.uk (Paul Shaw)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Defining intelligence
Message-ID: <10156@baird.cs.strath.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Aug 92 12:05:15 GMT
References: <BILL.92Aug9124642@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> <1992Aug11.152606.25085@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <BILL.92Aug11130136@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu>
Organization: Comp. Sci. Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.
Lines: 36

In article <BILL.92Aug11130136@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> bill@nsma.arizona.edu (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>
>But . . .
>
>   >   > That is, [something is more intelligent than me if] it does
>   >   > things the way I would if I'd had more time to think about
>   >   > them, or that I would do given its example. 
>
>How about the following:  Adolph Hitler was pretty intelligent, I
>think, maybe more intelligent than me, but I hope that I would never
>do things the way he did, regardless of how much time I had to think
>about them.  (If Hitler seems like a dubious example, substitute
>Satan.)
>
>Even better, consider Isaac Newton, who was, no question, far more
>intelligent than me, yet devoted a major part of his life to what I
>think of as theological nonsense.
>
>	-- Bill

You've got the logic wrong here, the assertion was NOT:


That is, [something is more intelligent than me if and only if] it does
                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
things the way I would if I'd had more time to think about
them, or that I would do given its example. 


It said nothing of people who act the way you would NOT wish to.
So, [the original statement said] if someone acts the way you do not wish
to, you can conclude nothing.  If they act the way you wish to act,
you can conclude higher intelligence than yourself.


Paul.


