From: ai@grepstation.berkeley.edu (Albert Ienstein)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: What really is AI?
Date: 16 Sep 1992 02:31:50 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: graft.berkeley.edu

In article <92253.145425KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET> in newsgroup comp.ai, at
    9 Sep 92 21:54:25 GMT, Jon L. Campbell <KVJLC@ASUACAD.BITNET>
    from Arizona State University posted via path agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!\
    overload.lbl.gov!lll-winken!iggy.GW.Vitalink.COM!cs.widener.edu!ukma!\
    asuvax!asuacad!kvjlc a message 100 lines long with no keywords but
    the subject "What really is AI?" a message which contains the
    following dialog which I have excerpted and responded with:

>    For the sake of argument, I'd like to propose a discussion about AI.

Why should you get to propose?

> Exploring what AI is or isn't and the boundaries of logic.

What makes you believe that?

>    From what I have gathered in the past few years, AI is or isn't
> software and/or hardware or a combination of the two.

Earlier you said you would like to propose?

> Lisp, expert systems, fuzzy logic, etc. are all professed to be, in
> one form or another, AI.

Maybe your plans have something to do with this.

> True?  Maybe, but then again maybe taken as a whole they would
> constitute a portion of the qualities that make AI.

When did you first know that then again maybe taken as a whole they
would constitute a portion of the qualities that make ai?

>    The brain is a component of AI, insomuch that it is a dependent
> peice of hardware that requires a certain amount of input before a
> decision can be made -- be it the right decision or not is not
> important.

Is the fact that it is a dependent peice of hardware that requires a
certain amount of input before a decision can be made be it the right
decision or not is not important the real reason?

And oh yeah, you SHMUCK, you misspelled "piece".  Get it right next time.

>  The brain is or isn't a fully functional AI component without all of
> the other functions that it needs to process the input.

Have you been obsessed with to process?

> There are numerous inputs that influence the basic
> decision process at the most elementary AI model of human behaviour.

Is it because influence the basic decision process at the most
elementary ai model of human behaviour that you came to me?

> These inputs are processed at a level that requires the least amount
> of synaps connectivity.

Did you ever regret requires the least amount of synaps connectivity?

> Computational logic also has a set of inputs, yet solving mathematical
> problems does not use the same set of rules that were used to process
> common bodily functions (i.e. breathing)

Tell me about something about math.

(a bit of the letter deleted)

> Which are stored ~ memory ~ recall ~ expanded ~ learned ~ stored ~~.
>                      _   +    _         -         |         _
>                      |        |         |       Variations  |
>                      |________|_________|__________|  |     |
>                           |_____________|_____________|_____|
>
>                            Software          Hardware
> * note:  Hypothetical         __                __
>                                |________________|
>                                         |
>                                         AI

I need a little more detail please.


                                                        Albert