What definition of "intelligence" are you using that makes that _necessarily_ the case? The ability to act based on rules and procedures? A computer can certainly do that. The ability to derive new information and procedures based on existing information and procedures? A computer can certainly do that as well. Contrariwise, if a computer isn't being intelligent when it is following existing rules and procedures, then there is no mathematical intelligence in the average math student. All the intelligence resides in the book or the teacher. If a connectionist computer system isn't being intelligent when it develops an algorithm for diagnosing tumors from radiographic images, then how is a baby being intelligent when he or she learns to recognize faces, or learns to walk? I agree that AI is problematic in all kinds of ways, but not because there is *no* intelligent behavior that can be modeled computationally. Expert systems (and computation more generally) allows us to model (and thus offload) certain (limited) kinds of cognitive activity. Computers can't exhibit all the forms of intelligence humans can, but that doesn't mean they don't exhibit intelligence at all. -------------------- (This article is from email discussions through owner-piaget-list@interchange.ubc.ca) |