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Article 2036 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: shell@cs.sfu.ca (Barry Shell)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Short List: Things Computers Can't Do
Message-ID: <1991Dec10.225019.6919@cs.sfu.ca>
Date: 10 Dec 91 22:50:19 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Lines: 47

Hello,
I am a writer considering doing a very easy to understand piece on
what computers cannot do, which has been inspired by my recent
reading of Dreyfus.
What I want is just a short list--and it could be speculative--
of things that people should not expect computers to do. This is for
the common person, not a computer scientist; a person who is
basically intimidated by computers; a person who not only sees
them taking over the banking system and the control of
automobiles, but also as they are portrayed in films: C3P0 (starwars)
HAL (2001), and Data (Star Trek).
 
I want to write a short piece for general consumption that puts
this into perspective. We are so far from robots and computers as
portrayed on TV and film. At least I think so. Am I not right?
 
Here is my short list of what computers or thinking machines cannot do:
(At least not as well as the average one or two-year-old person)

Outright impossible:
The halting problem
Tiling the plain with 4 coloured 4 sided tiles where like colors meet.

Solvable but requires human to guess:
Bin Packing
Scheduling

(Above may be classed as solvable but in an impractically long time)
Therefore they are not practically solvable.

Solvable in the long term but not very well for now:
Walking
Talking
Vision
Hearing
Learning
Reasoning with flexibility

I would appreciate mail that added to this list.

If this is not the right place for this letter, please
repost it to the correct group for me, or suggest
where I might post it.

Thanks

Barry Shell 604-876-5790 4692 Quebec St., Vancouver, B.C. Canada V5A 3M1


