From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wupost!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!cam Sun Dec  1 13:05:25 EST 1991
Article 1626 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Animal Intelligence vs Human Intelligence
Message-ID: <15251@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Nov 91 11:40:19 GMT
References: <1991Oct30.091241.9820@cs.bham.ac.uk> <1991Oct30.222202.23889@aisb.ed.ac.uk> <5681@skye.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 25

In article <5681@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.UUCP (Jeff Dalton) writes:
>In article <1991Oct30.222202.23889@aisb.ed.ac.uk> cam@aifh.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm) writes:

>>Smart dogs and cats can certainly lie ...

>> ... All you [they] have to be able to do is to
>>pretend to be doing one thing as a cover for an action which is actually
>>contributing to the achievement of something else which another animal
>>would stop you from doing if it realised what you were up to.

>Misleading behavior isn't the same as telling lies, except
>metaphorically.

I was talking about _deliberately_ misleading behaviour. Is that not
lying? For example, suppose you are about to attack me, and I say "Hang
on, there is a big fierce animal behind you." This is a lie, intended to
get you turn round, whereupon I will attack you. On the other hand, I
can accomplish exactly the same lying communication by feigning an
expression of terror while looking past you. My intention and my
accomplishment is the same: to make you believe something not true. What
is the special difference that attaches to using words to do it?
-- 
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


