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Article 4640 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: How can you get teleology?
Message-ID: <1992Mar21.052235.18693@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 21 Mar 92 05:22:35 GMT
References: <1992Mar21.030511.21269@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 22

In article <1992Mar21.030511.21269@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs) writes:
>
>  Here is something I've been puzzling about:  One of the
>defining characteristics of intelligence, or indeed of life
>in general, is activity that is apparently oriented toward
>achieving goals.  (I use the word "apparently" to avoid
>starting arguments about things that don't interest me.)
>
>  There seem to be at least two ways of getting systems 
>that show goal-directed behavior:  natural selection (in
>the case of life) and design (in the case of machines).
>Could there be other ways, or are these the only possibilities?

  It may often be the case that the "goal oriented behavior" begins
first, and the "goal" is invented later as a rationalization for
this behavior.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940


