Date of inquiry: October 23, 2000
A wicker papasan.
2. What is your favorite condiment?
Mustard.
I'm glad you asked. Many people seem to believe that all people with math skills dream of using them to conquer the world. Luckily the brightest mathematicians lack the social skills and leadership to gather a following. A very smart person can destroy everything easily, but total domination requires survivors to opress. Also, we all know that Hitler was a struggling artist and probably not very good at math. (He apparently never calculated the odds in the "whole world vs. me" equation.) Luckily, for me at least, the lure of starches are more powerful than the thirst for power.
4. What is the average air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? (European, of course. And you won't be cast into the Gorge of Eternal Peril if you don't know.)
Being European it would have to be 15km/h. No, no, wait, 12 km/h. Ahhhh!!!!!!! (klunk)
You know, I said you wouldn't be cast into the Gorge if you didn't know... Thanks for casting yourself in, anyway... ;)
5. Which do you think is the more likely future of artificial intelligence: unprogrammed, "analog" robots which can solve problems their creators never taught them about, but cannot be controlled, per se; or digital robots, which are more predictable, but slave to the limits of their programming? (For more information on this issue, if you want, see the article entitled "Redefining Robots" in the February 2000 issue of Smithsonian Magazine.)
I've read that article. I forget his name, but his work is fascinating. (Liz says: His name is Mark Tilden.) Too bad many scientists won't consider his work valid because he's only published one paper. The scientists that do "important" work publish papers. But then again their work is boring, too. Digital systems basically require perfect "minds" to do anything. There's no such thing as an idiot savant computer. We don't have to have super-human computational power and memory just to walk. Physicists discover laws that already existed and apply them. The robot designers' approach is akin to the physicists except that they are trying to invent the laws too. Imagine where we would be now if we were still trying to "invent" the atom or gravity. If we ever do create a sentient being, it won't be artificial intelligence -- it will be genuine intelligence. The clues are in nature.
Thanks, Greg. You rock.
Greg does not mind if you e-mail him, particularly if you are a nice, single, heterosexual girl who lives in the Austin, TX metropolitan area. Or you can go back to my friends page. Think my questions weren't stupid enough? Well, go here and suggest some of your own.