Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife
From: stevem@comtch.iea.com (Steve McGrew)
Subject: Re: Will we ever create inteligent life?
Organization: New Light Industries, Ltd.
References: <324F5E7E.16F7@netvision.net.il>
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Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 13:50:57 GMT
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In article <324F5E7E.16F7@netvision.net.il>, nadavs@netvision.net.il wrote:
>I have recieved alot of replies from my last letter, but please:
>I would like the replies to be posted, nor mailed to me, so that anyone
>could say his opinion regarding what someone else said.
>So please, post, don't reply.

        You're looking for opinions.  Okay, I'll say "yes".
        Any discussion on this will have to focus on the issues of "what is 
life?", "what is intelligence?", and "what does it mean to *create* 
something?".  Once we define those things in a scientifically meaningful way, 
the definitions will come close to constituting a menu for creating 
intelligent life.
        My definition of "life" would attribute a small degree of aliveness to 
a brush fire or a prion, and a high degree of aliveness to a population of 
bacteria.  My definition of "intelligence" would similarly be very broad, and 
would relate to a system's ability to model its environment and its own 
interaction with its environment.  My definition of "creating" would be broad 
enough to include assembling a system from components borrowed from other, 
naturally occurring systems.
        By those definitions, it could be said that we have already created 
intelligent life-- but that it is not as alive or as intelligent as human 
beings.

Steve

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| Steve McGrew               |          stevem@comtch.iea.com           |
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