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From: angus@aegypt.demon.co.uk (Angus McIntyre)
Subject: Re: Anti-computer, AI abuse book ??
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Date: Mon, 6 Mar 1995 19:15:10 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:27939 comp.ai.philosophy:25866

In article <3je72u$4m0@ixnews2.ix.netcom.com>,
MasonC@ix.netcom.com (Mason Clark) wrote:

>Can you help me identify a book I read and gave away
>long ago? I believe it was by the programmer who did the Eliza
>program. Perhaps Ed Feigenbaum? In this book the 
>author, whoever it was, rather angrily criticized 
>proposals to use computers for some purposes 
>for which he believed human experience was necessary ...

<bzzzzt> "Computer power and human reason", Joseph Weizenbaum.

>Your help will be much appreciated by a group economists 
>who want to run the economy by computerized central planning.

Ewwww! Better get 'em reading, fast.

The book is getting on in years, and Weizenbaum may have been
a little too pessimistic, but the basic conclusion - that computers
aren't too smart, and neither are human beings, particularly where
computers are concerned - is difficult to find fault with.

                                                            A


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