From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!fluke!gtisqr!toddi Wed Aug 12 16:52:46 EDT 1992
Article 6594 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: toddi@mav.com (Todd Inch)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Defining Intelligence
Message-ID: <1992Aug10.202334.1988@mav.com>
Date: 10 Aug 92 20:23:34 GMT
References: <14n85cINN9vc@conquest.ksu.ksu.edu> <1992Jul23.223809.11316@mp.cs.niu.edu> <14nj5oINN9e2@sam.ksu.ksu.edu>
Organization: Maverick International Inc.
Lines: 40

In article <14nj5oINN9e2@sam.ksu.ksu.edu> khise@sam.ksu.ksu.edu (Martin Andrew Shobe) writes:
>
>In article <1992Jul23.223809.11316@mp.cs.niu.edu>, rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>>In article <14n85cINN9vc@conquest.ksu.ksu.edu> khise@conquest.ksu.ksu.edu (Martin Andrew Shobe) writes: [criticizing my comments]
>>>In article <1992Jul23.151338.28804@mp.cs.niu.edu>, rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes:
>>>>In article <2ZmcoB1w164w@cybernet.cse.fau.edu> justin.bbs@cybernet.cse.fau.edu writes:
>>>>>        I. Intelligence requires a memory storage/retrieval system.
>>>>
>>>>  Strongly disagree.
>>
>>>But we do have storage/retrieval systems.  Somehow, I have stored that I was
>>>born on June 13, 1969.  What this has to do with intelligence is a different
>>>story.
>>
>>  I still disagree.  We have some kind of memory.  But that memory does
>>not have a store operation, and does not have a retrieve operation.
>>The date of your birth happens to be something that you remember fairly
>>readily.

It seems to me that the storage/retrieval system (or memory for that
matter) is only necessary to *learn*, not to *be intelligent* with the
following exception:

If intelligence is simply "smartness" or the ability to solve problems,
there only needs to be enough "memory" to store the data required to
solve the problem.  This is a practical issue, though, and doesn't
necessarily determine whether or not it's intelligent.

Isn't it possible for a machine or being to be "intelligent" in and of
itself without having any external inputs or outputs, and without being
able to remember anything?  A computer, for example, with no peripherals
or memory?

True, it cannot solve a problem until the problem has be somehow
"transferred" to it, but that seems like more of a practical issue that
a question of "is it intelligent?"  Kind of like a fast car that's
dangling from a rope - yes it can go fast, but it isn't practical at
the moment.

Please e-mail and post - my newsfeed has been flakey - TIA.


