From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!cam Fri Sep  4 09:41:38 EDT 1992
Article 6761 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Defining intelligence
Message-ID: <25455@castle.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:25:03 GMT
References: <BILL.92Aug11130136@ca3.nsma.arizona.edu> <1992Aug13.044325.16707@zip.eecs.umich.edu> <exukjb.105.715022628@exu.ericsson.se>
Organization: Edinburgh University
Lines: 31

In article <exukjb.105.715022628@exu.ericsson.se> exukjb@exu.ericsson.se (ken bell) writes:

>A new characterization of "intelligence": the 
>capacity to adapt means to ends.  Differential abilities in respect of 
>adapting means to ends by different orders of living being indicates 
>why intelligence is both a type-word and a straightforwardly adjectival 
>one. The more intelligent something is, the better able it is to find the 
>best means to attain its ends. 

>Theoretical Advantages:

>	2. Accounts for our gut feeling that intelligence is closely 
>	   tied to consciousness, because only conscious beings 	   
>	   know values (rooted in needs & desires) and thus can have 
>	   purposes.

I'm not alone in thinking that the purpose of bunch of termites
running around playing mud pies with dust and spit is to build a
termitary. That their behaviour is purposive can be tested by
interfering with it: they will resist interference, and repair damage.
Yet most people do not suppose termites to be conscious creatures. And
even if they were conscious, there is no termite which is aware of the
grand purpose of building the termitary according to its pre-ordained
design. The most any particular termite could be conscious of would be
it's own particular fragment of the task, at the individual mud pie
level, no more. Yet there is a design for the entire termitary, and
the termites achieve it pursposively, do they not?
-- 
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


