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From: kovsky@netcom.com (Bob Kovsky)
Subject: Re: Is the mind/brain deterministic?
Message-ID: <kovskyCz4wy5.BKE@netcom.com>
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References: <kovskyCz0B4G.Aqr@netcom.com> <39r7u3$sk4@cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 1994 03:13:16 GMT
Lines: 40

In the thread dealing with the topic stated above and in answer to a 
question about the value of AI, I entered a post that included the 
following:

If something big is coming at you, it's better to jump in any direction
than to sit around figuring which way to jump.  I see the brain as a
system balanced "on the edge"  where a relatively minor stimulus can
produce a big result.  Like an alloy maintained in a smelter on the edge
of a phase change. 

Hans Moravec<hpm@cs.cmu.edu> took the passage out of context and 
responded: 

>	Like Humpty Dumpty, I guess you can employ words for whatever
>purpose you pay them for.  If your use of them gets too unusual,
>though, it becomes hard to communicate with other people.
>
>	In my lab there are robots with sensors that respond hugely to
>tiny stimuli (for instance, starting up when the tiniest sliver of
>light hits a sensor).  WE consider them machines.  The key process in
>their responsiveness we call "high gain".  When I turn up the gain on
>their amplifiers, my machines cease to be machines?  No, thanks.  I'll
>continue to use my own definitions.
>

	In the early days of the science, before anyone heard of
artificial intelligence, men such as W. Grey Walter (who designed
light-seeking "tortoises") and W. Ross Ashby (whose artificial "homeostat"
he described as like a sleeping dog that, when disturbed, wriggled into a 
new and more comfortable position) tried to bridge the chasm between 
engineering and biological organisms.  They were carefully investigating 
complex and difficult problems, always conscious of the limits of their 
understanding.  Of course, they never achieved the world-shaking 
breakthroughs that have emerged from Prof. Moravec's laboraroty.

-- 

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    Bob Kovsky          |  A Natural Science of Freedom 
    kovsky@netcom.com   |  Materials available by anonymous ftp
                        |  At ftp.netcom.com/pub/freeedom
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