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From: mjs14@unix.brighton.ac.uk (shute)
Subject: Re: Go: del-style arguments
Message-ID: <1994Nov4.160217.14083@unix.brighton.ac.uk>
Organization: University of Brighton, UK
References: <398tbh$sp0@remus.rutgers.edu>
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 1994 16:02:17 GMT
Lines: 32

In article <398tbh$sp0@remus.rutgers.edu> wclark@remus.rutgers.edu (Bill Clark) writes:
>Our ability to "step out of
>the system" is amazing, but all of the methods that we have so far discovered
>are very easily programmed into a computer.  Granted, it is theoretically
>impossible to come up with a general scheme for doing so that can be 
>programmed, but human logicians are also unaware of any general scheme by
>which *we* can do this either!

Surely not...
As a hardware engineer, the task seems relatively trivial:
The robot can spend all the time it wants chasing the logic in "Everything
I say is a lie", or more "my understanding of Goedel's theorem is
complete and consistent", or <whatever your pet test for AI is>.
But, every 6 hours, my hardware will assert the 'interrupt' line, and
make the processor execute the "Prepare and eat next meal/battery-recharge"
service routine; every 24 hours to execute the "go to land of nod to
untangle today's acquisitions in the databases" service routine;
every 10 minutes the "<yawn> attention-span exceeded" service routine;
and every now and then, the "Heck! isn't there something else I'm supposed
to have been doing by now, rather than solving this philosophy problem?"
service routine.

Of course, I can also expect the software engineer to have put in
detection logic for stalemate situations.  These will allow the robot
to detect specific classes of pointless (iterative) problem, like the
'everything I say is a lie' paradox.  My interrupts will then only
really come into their own to protect against the more general, undetectable
loop.
-- 

Malcolm SHUTE.         (The AM Mollusc:   v_@_ )        Disclaimer: all

