Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!sharkey!tygra!dave
From: dave@tygra.UUCP (David Conrad)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: What AI is exactly.
Summary: Rephrase the question
Message-ID: <387@tygra.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 90 10:27:55 GMT
References: <11770@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Organization: CAT-TALK Conferencing Network, Detroit, MI
Lines: 31

In article <11770@accuvax.nwu.edu>, lynch@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu
 (Richard Lynch) writes:
} Q:  Are ethics and/or morals a requirement of intelligence?

Well, IMHO ethics and morals (surely as difficult to define as "learning"
and "intelligence") are probably emergent qualities of intelligence as
opposed to prerequisites. 
 
And I defy anyone to deny that the kitten who has figured out how to get
my attention by attacking my legs isn't 'learning'.  It has also been
working on the "cat flap" problem and improving greatly its strategems
for play-fighting with the resident adult cat.
(This isn't a response to Richard Lynch, but to someone else on
the net who denied that cats actually learn, as such.)
Cats acquire data, remember past situations, and heuristically improve
on their responses to similar situations.  Or appear to.  Everything
they do certainly isn't hardcoded in their DNA.  They respond adaptively,
or at least differently, to repeated 'inputs' (or previously encountered
situations).  IMHO.
--
David R. Conrad
dave@tygra.ddmi.com
Disclaimer: This article has no disclaimer.
Errata: a) The disclaimer is incorrect and should be deleted.
        b) For "Errata" read "Erratum".
The local system just *loves* to add this:
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