From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw Tue Nov 24 10:52:11 EST 1992
Article 7654 of comp.ai.philosophy:
Path: newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!torn!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw
>From: throopw@sheol.UUCP (Wayne Throop)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: grounding and the entity/environment boundary
Summary: finding what's behind that rock
Message-ID: <721718068@sheol.UUCP>
Date: 14 Nov 92 02:21:08 GMT
References: <720937346@sheol.UUCP> <1992Nov9.221842.18550@spss.com> <721458252@sheol.UUCP> <1992Nov13.015532.10022JPII@tygra.Michigan.COM>
Lines: 35

: From: dave@tygra.Michigan.COM (David Conrad)
: Message-ID: <1992Nov13.015532.10022JPII@tygra.Michigan.COM>
: Normally we are able to expand our knowledge according to our
: curiousity.  For instance, if one is really wandering around in the
: grand canyon, and one wonders what may be behind that next rock
: outcropping there, well, one can just walk over and look.
: Not so for an entity depending on information someone else has chosen.
: There may be a .GIF of the other other side of the outcropping, but
: there may not, and the entity has no way to affect that.

To me, this seems analogous to a human wondering what's behind that
rock, but being unable to fit through the only crack which leads there
to find out.  Sure, the human can go and get a long pole and a dental
mirror, or a fiber optic camera, but then the computer could commision
somebody to take more GIFs.  The two situations don't seem
fundamentally dissimilar to me (though we see here that the computer is
at an access disadvantage, along with the resolution, frame rate,
field-of-view, and other disadvantages already mentioned).

: Imagine that you were trying to get information about a mall from
: a miniature video camera mounted on the head of a friend of yours
: walking through the mall.  "Why the hell is she spending so much
: time in this Radio Shack?  I wish she'd go over to that Waldenbooks.
: Ah! here we are.  Yes!  Come on...no, she went into the music store
: instead."
: How might this lack of control over inputs affect the intelligence,
: consciousness, or personality of an AI or a person, for that matter?

Somebody already mentioned that developmental studies done with cats
showed bad effects from such a situation.  (The situation as I recall
it was having one kitten tow another around, and showing that the
towed kitten had sensory problems (as well as the obvious motor
and sensory/motor coordination problems).
--
Wayne Throop  ...!mcnc!dg-rtp!sheol!throopw


