Author: Robert Hyatt
Date: 12:11:44 08/05/02
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On August 05, 2002 at 12:05:56, Louis Fagliano wrote: >On August 05, 2002 at 11:45:28, Robert Hyatt wrote: > >>On August 05, 2002 at 11:10:55, Terry McCracken wrote: >> >>>Do computers make decisions? >>>If so, what is your definition of a "computer decision" and how it relates and >>>differs from human decisions? >>> >>>Please cite examples. This can be from chess to any area of so-called "machine >>>intelligence", please give _your_ answers, as well as information that can be >>>obtained on the net. >>> >>>Your help with these answers will be greatly appreciated! >>> >>>Thanks in Advance. >>> >>>Regards, >>> Terry McCracken >> >> >>A couple of points. >> >>First, _yes_ a computer makes decisions. For example, you can use an >>external A/D converter to measure two temperatures in a steam plant and make >>a decision as to which burner should be turned up or down based on those >>measurements. >> >>Second, does a computer make decisions like _we_ do? Impossible to say. IE >>can you _prove_ that the human mind doesn't rely on anything other than pure >>binary values? Nobody has to date, so that is an open question. Wouldn't it >>be funny if we one day find out that at the elementary level, everything we do >>is on/off? :) > >I'd have to question that because brains of living biological creatures do not >operate digitally but rather holistically. How can you prove that? IE that at some basic biological level we are not just storing zeros and ones??? It can't be proven _yet_, so it is simply all conjecture. But one day it won't be and we will _know_ whether we are really unique creatures or just highly advanced finite state machines... > Early on in the evolution of life it >was a clear advantage if a bacterium reacted appropriately to an external >stimulus and the way to do that was by pattern recogintion (holoistically) >rather than digitally on/off. Pattern recognition is very hard to achieve if >done digitally. I don't believe that at all. IE You define the pattern you want to recognize, I will write a program to do it. And given enough processors to do the recognition in parallel (as the human mind does it) I can probably do it faster. And more accurately. > >> >>Perhaps one of the best examples of "making a decision" is in computer chess, >>where the computer has to choose between N moves and pick just one. That is >>_clearly_ a decision...
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