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Article 6729 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: harnad@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Stevan Harnad)
Subject: Re: Don't try to "define" intelligence
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Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 14:30:21 GMT
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Don't try to define intelligence. That would be like trying to "define"
gravity before you had a successful theory of gravitation. Intelligence
is the thing people and animals have when they do the kinds of clever
things that we ordinarily think of as requiring intelligence. Being
able to do only some or even many of those things is not a sign of
intelligence, just as being able only to fall, jump, or taxi on the ground
is not a sign of flying. A nonhuman, non-animal candidate's performance
capacities must be indistinguishable from ours to justify inferring
that they are intelligent. That criterion may be too strong, but,
methdologically, it can only be weakened AFTER it's been attained --
otherwise we're back to calling falling, jumping and taxiing "flight"
"by definition."

Harnad, S. (1992) The Turing Test Is Not a Trick:
Turing Indistinguishability Is A Scientific Criterion.
Sigart Bulletin 3(4) October 1992

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-- 
Stevan Harnad  Department of Psychology  Princeton University
harnad@clarity.princeton.edu / harnad@pucc.bitnet / srh@flash.bellcore.com 
harnad@learning.siemens.com / harnad@elbereth.rutgers.edu / (609)-921-7771


