From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!news.univie.ac.at!hp4at!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!cam Wed Oct 14 14:58:45 EDT 1992
Article 7221 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.ai.philosophy,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Human intelligence vs. Machine intelligence
Keywords: penrose, church-turing hypothesis
Message-ID: <26777@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 12 Oct 92 00:49:53 GMT
References: <1992Oct7.151533.7822@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> <BvytMD.9FC@cs.bham.ac.uk> <1992Oct11.200006.685@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 29

In article <1992Oct11.200006.685@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> ginsberg@t.Stanford.EDU (Matthew L. Ginsberg) writes:

> Sloman ... sold out on the fundamental question of strong
> AI's validity. 

> We in AI cannot afford to relinquish the strong AI thesis, and at
> this point, we have no substantive reason for doing so.  It is a shame
> that the only reply to Penrose that has appeared in our premier journal
> does just this.

Just for the record there are many AI researchers who do not hold the
strong AI thesis, and there has never been a period when it was
unanimously agreed in AI. The strong AI thesis is not essential to a
justification of current AI research. For example, a great deal of
current research would continue unchanged if everybody suddenly agreed
that while running a computer program could not _produce_
understanding that it was nevertheless an essential ingredient.
Necessary but not sufficient. A position consistent both with Searle's
Chinese Room criticism and most current AI research.

I'm not suggesting that anybody actually holds this view; simply that
for most researchers it would make little difference to what they are
doing if they did. Therefore strong AI is not an essential plank in
the platform supporting AI research. QED.

-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205


