One thing models another when its structure is the same as the structure of some other reality. Such structures are said to be "isomorphic". If I interpret you correctly, you hold to the theory that the forms (structures) of computer activities are isomorphs of the certain forms of human intelletual activity, namely, the logical forms of human thought. Because the computer structures are isomorphs of human logical thinking, they can properly be called "intellitgent". If this is what you mean by "intelligent", then I certainly agree that computers might be called intelligent in this sense. My question is this. Venn diagrams (the circles representing classes you learned about in freshman logic) exhibit relations which are isomorphic with class relations as they exist in the human mind. They too are isomorphs of human thinking about class relationships. Would you call the Venn diagrams (i.e., the diagrams on the page) intelligent in the sense above? ---------------------- (This article is from email discussions through owner-piaget-list@interchange.ubc.ca) |