From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!nexus.yorku.ca!tony Fri Sep  4 09:41:47 EDT 1992
Article 6778 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!nexus.yorku.ca!tony
>From: tony@nexus.yorku.ca (Anthony Wallis)
Subject: Re: What do I do with it?
Message-ID: <1992Sep4.001558.18246@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca>
Sender: news@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca (USENET News System)
Organization: York University
References: <1992Sep3.194253.12195@access.usask.ca>
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 00:15:58 GMT

Henry Choy wonders:
> Let's say I want to build an intelligent machine. What's it to be
> used for? Can this machine out its role in the universe?

If we can build one truly intelligent machine, then in principle we
can build a very large number of them. (Recall that the only numbers
of interest to theoretical computer scientists are zero, one and
infinity.)  With just a wee bit of randomization we can give them
differing biases/prejudices/bigotries.  We can then set them arguing
against (and "killing") each other: very large scale genetic algorithmics.

As well as confounding immensely such issues as God and qualia,
they could also, as a minor sub-task, do all of the posting in
the newsgroup comp.ai.philosophy, freeing us to do some real work.

--
tony@nexus.yorku.ca = Tony Wallis, York University, Toronto, Canada



