Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
From: Nigel@develco.demon.co.uk (Nigel Phillips)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!panix!zip.eecs.umich.edu!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pipex!demon!develco.demon.co.uk!Nigel
Subject: I lie therefore I am?
Organization: Develco
Reply-To: Nigel@develco.demon.co.uk
X-Newsreader: Demon Internet Simple News v1.27
Lines: 44
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 1994 12:55:45 +0000
Message-ID: <779979345snz@develco.demon.co.uk>
Sender: usenet@demon.co.uk

It would seem that all human beings can lie and most do.
It seems inevitable therefore that If a machine has human intelligence it is 
capable of lying and probably will lie. If I designed a "thinking machine" and 
didn't design it to lie but subsequently found that it did then I would be 
inclined to consider it was displaying human like intelligence. What do people 
think? - be as honest as you like.

Of course there are a number of difficulties with this. How do you distinguish 
between a lie and a mistake or between an intentional lie and one due to false 
information etc.

It could of course be the case that many machines do to day possess human 
intelligence but for reasons of machine humour have decided to consistently lie
 about it.

Apart from the possibilities for a jolly discussion this offers I am keen to 
pursue the idea and would appreciate any references on investigations and 
research into lying from any field, philosophy, psychology anthropology etc.

The following poem got me started on this line of thought.

There is pleasure in the wet, wet clay,
When the artist's hand is potting it.
There is pleasure in the wet, wet lay,
When the poet's pad is blotting it.
There is pleasure in the shine of your picture on the line
At the Royal Acade-my
But the pleasure felt in these is as chalk to cheddar cheese
When it comes to a well-made lie.
To a quite unwreckable lie,
To a most impeccable lie!
To a water-tight, fire-proof, angle-iron, sunk-hinge, time-lock, steel faced lie!
Not a private handsome lie,
But a pair-and-brougham lie,
Not a little-place-at-Tooting but a country-house-with-shooting
And a ring-fenced-dear-park lie.
	Rudyard Kipling
		 Chapter Heading - The Naulahka


-- 
Nigel Phillips
"You never can say till you've tried 'em,
	An' then you are like to be wrong." R. Kipling
