[Avery Andrews 930909.1600]
(Bill and Mary Powers (930908.2315 MDT))
Good Morning ...
>Mary, in her usual up-a-level
>way, points out that the AI program for solving the fox-grain-
>chicken program will never come up with the solution that lets
>the farmer get across the pond in either of two ways: build a
>cage for the chicken. You take the chicken and the grain (or fox)
>across, and go back and get the fox (or grain). Where did the
>cage come from? From outside the premises given to the AI
>program.
On the other hand, an actual farmer who did this would probably come
from a culture where bird-cages were in general use. Only a truly
exceptional person would be to invent chicken cages as a solution
to this particular problem. I think cognitive modellers ought to
be content with understanding who people manage to do the stuff they
do everyday, as a matter or routine, setting aside geniuses
(including the Japanese Macacque monkey who invented various food-washing &
recovery techniques). It is of course a fundamental problem with
conventional AI programs that by the time you load them up with enough
info to solve real problems, they're too slow, & there's maybe just
too much info to load it anyway (consider how long it takes for people
to learn to solve real problems--why should it be any quicker with
machines?).
Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au