🚀 go-pugleaf

This article is from Spiros Triantafyllopoulos <SPIROS@GMR.COM>
 and was received on Tue Jul 15 21:05:55 1986
 

>>My point is this, I think it is intrinically impossible to program common 
>>sense because a computer is not a man. A computer cannot experience what man 
>>can; it cannot see or make ubiquitous judgements that man can.  We may be 
>>able to program common-sense like rules into it,but this is not tantamount 
>>to real world common sense because real world common sense is drawn from a 
>>'database' that could never be matched by a simulated one.
>
>Why not?  Computers *have* been programmed with common-sense rules and
>information in limited domains (i.e., expert systems).  They sometimes
>exhibit better "common-sense" reasoning than people, within these domains.
>What is the theoretical or philosophical reason that these domains could not
>be extended to the larger but still limited ones that humans use?
>
>							   Len Popp
>{allegra,decvax,ihnp4,tektronix,ubc-vision}!watmath!watdaisy!lmpopp

Nope. Expert systems have been known for behaving perfectly when faced
with situations for which the appropriate rule/action pairs exist. However,
expert systems can fail pretty miserably when faced with situations
beyond the scope of their knowledge.

Most peoples' idea of expert systems comes from quite inflated claims
by software developers/research-paper-writers/and-the-like. An article
in AI magazine about a year ago discussed this phenomenon quite extensively.
Claims of 90% success etc. were usual, but nowhere where the limitations
and/or failures of the presented system (typical let-the-user-find-out
conditions). There have been cases of expert systems working with VERY
specialized problems (where common sence wouldn't do much good anyway)
therefore paving the way for generalization of claims about expert systems
in general. But we're a long way from getting there.

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> A Macintosh computer was recently a star witness in the first-degree-murder
> trial of Sagon Penn, who was charged with the shooting deaths of two San Diego
> policemen.  
> .....
> the case had not been reached at press time, Poza said that the attorneys, the
>judge, and the jury were impressed with the Macintosh technology and its
> contribution to the analysis of important evidence.
>
>.	The most disturbing thing about this article was the closing line "the 
>. attorneys, the judge and the jury were impressed with the Macintosh tech-
>. nology..." it's just a precursor to courtrooms where testimony is processed 
>. by computer and available for review in the jury deliberation area, and then 
>. what's to stop someone breaking into the system and altering testimony 
>. records?  Etcetera etcetera   -- Dave]
  
Couldn't agree more. But, then, the prosecutor could bring up a CRAY-2 
or something and prove, beyond any doubt, that the people who wrote
the MAC software  (or software in general) are not "competent" and
disqualify them (therefore disqualifying the produced evidence). Or they
could hire a Ph.D from a local University to testify about program complexity
(show the Jury Knuth's books?) and arrive at similar conclusions.
Then, Jury, judge and prosecutors could be introduced a bit more to
computerese as a hung jury could be renamed as an infinite loop...

I'm getting *really* scared.

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>     In this high-tech age, it was inevitable that someone would think of
>inventing a computer to solve the problem of contraception.  The first on
>the market is a hand-held computer made by Rabbit Computer Corp. in Los 
>Angeles.

Any home computer would do... Computers tend to be very discouraging in
the childmaking process (not now honey, I got a program to finish). Also
physiological changes caused by computers, such as headaches (what an
excuse!), back aches (?), VDT radiation that may cause infertility, 
etc. So, the Rabbit Co. plainly re-invents the wheel...

Spiros Triantafyllopoulos
Spiros@GMR.COM