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Article 5278 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott)
Subject: Re: Amusing Quotation
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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1992 13:50:31 GMT
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  In article <1992Apr23.175901.1061@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes:

  >I came across the following in _Discrete thoughts : essays on mathematics,  
  >science, and philosophy_ by Mark Kac,Gian-Carlo Rota, and Jacob T. Schwartz.   
  >[Boston :Birkhauser, 1986] The quotations are from Rota (a combinatorist).
  >
  >  The computer is just an instrument for doing faster what we already know how  
  >to do slower.  All pretension to computer intelligence and paradise-tomorrow  
  >promise should be toned down before the public turns away in disgust.  And if  
  >that should happen, our civilization might not survive.(p 263)

At the risk of overreacting to a quote out of context, let me point
out the obvious fallacy: On any given occasion, a computer does faster
what we already know how to do slower.  But it is likely that the the
task it is being asked to do would never have been thought of if all
previous exploration in the given domain had been done at the original
slow speed.  In other words, at the point where we turn on the first
paradisaical intelligent program, it will be the case that we "already
know" how to generate intelligence computationally.  But that doesn't
imply that we already know now.

                                             -- Drew McDermott


