The Elysian Fields

On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part fifteen of sixteen

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Part One
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( Part Fifteen )

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Reference Links

16. Ashley Dunn - "Machine Intelligence, Part II: From Bumper Cars to Electronic Minds"

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part thirteen of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Thirteen )

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Reference Links

13. Alan Turing
**** http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~cfs/472_html/Intro/NYT_Intro/History/MachineIntelligence1.html
**** http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/
**** http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~asaygin/tt/ttest.html

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part nine of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Nine )

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Reference Links

7. Everett A Warren – "Impotent Spirituality" , A Work Forever In Progress, Book II Chapter 7

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part seven of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Seven )

"Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind."

I think, perhaps, that rather than trying to design an AI construct, there are more important technologies to focus on. For that very AI will sooner or later – provided we actually gave it the ability to reason – realise that, despite all our past history regarding an aversion to slavery, we have in fact gained no new ground. We resorted to creating our own slaves, and we hope we programmed them with enough self-control to restrain from thanking us for that honour. No, as much as the subject matter interests me, intrigues me, I can see the patterns of our mistakes in prior activities growing with greater speed then before, ascending to greater heights.

There is less flash, less tech-appeal, in the technologies that are of far more value.

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part five of sixteen

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Part One
Previous

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( Part Five )

"The way of life can be free and beautiful."

Another optimistic sentiment? Perhaps, but a Truth nonetheless.

"But we have lost the way."

Ah, the pessimist will smile. The difference between all the "should"s and "could"s, into the hard, fast, cold realm of "is"s. The usage of "the way" could be taken, by those of Taoist leanings, to imply the Tao itself – The Way – and they wouldn't be too far off the mark of the intent I read in the statements.

We also seem to have strayed somewhat afield of discussions on robotics, binary systems, and AI. In truth, we are just beginning to get to the heart of the matter, the core of our discussion.

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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On Artificial Intelligence and Machine Men
By Everett A Warren
March 14, 2004

Presented as part one of sixteen

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( Part One )

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Reference Links

1. Neville Holmes – Artificial Intelligence: Arrogance or Ignorance? – IEEE Computer Magazine – November 2003 (Vol. 36 No. 11) – pp. 120, 118-119 – The Profession

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~ Questions and discussion welcome! ~

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How is it user-friendly that when I delete three lines below a piece of text, M$Word assumes I also want to shift said remaining line of text one tab-spot to the left?

Wait until other companies learn from this! In some day and age, you could press 'eject' on your CD player, and it will automatically switch to shuffle-play mode! Step on the brakes in your car, and the system will conveniently pop open your trunk!

Dead Laptop
My laptop is resting in pieces. Went up in a literal cloud of smoke (capacitors in the power supply, I think) when the display - which half fell apart back in July - flipped down and severed or shorted the cabling. Now, instead of just replacing the display (which was delayed, in part, to them not getting the extended warranty), they will most likely have to replace the whole thing.

Of course, there is data on the drive - work related, in addition to personal stuff - that will likely be lost. Oy.

Busy Morning
We actually had two visitors this morning, which is rare, because hardly anyone ever stops by. The pastor for a local Baptist church stopped by and chatted a bit, and then, a few hours later, a kid ran out of gas on the turnpike. I gave him the leftovers from lawn mowing season - probably less than a gallon, but hopefully enough to get him to the service area - and he offered me five bucks for it. I wound up giving him the cash back, as it just didn't seem right charging him for it.

Little Stuff
Got a lot of little stuff done today - a couple of windchimes up, one a seasonal angel thing and the other made of obsidian chards; lowered the dining room chandalier; hung up some holiday decorations; installed a rain gauge; and put up a hook in the garage. Simple stuff, but it's all done. Might get the pictures up later, and get the holiday card mailings out.