Re: AI in FT (was Re: Be gentle...)

At 01:01 AM 7/13/97 -0700, Karl wrote:
>
>The story is called "Reflex", and can be found in the collection
entitled
>"There Will Be War", (vol. 1 of 10), published by Tor.

It's not a bad story, but it was written to prove the point that humans
were
still needed to fight wars. In the story, the AI was set up as a
strawman to
the human crew's ironman. 

>In addition, any AI would initially be programmed with necessary logic
and
>"learning" functions, but at what point in its development would the AI
be
>able to duplicate the human thought process to create and implement an
>'original', unique tactic that it hadn't encountered before? 

My supposition is that a SAPIENT artificially created intelligence--as
part
of the definition of being sapient--would be self-aware AND capable of
learning.

>Without that
>ability present, you'll have autonomous fleets using identical tactics
(or a
>huge programming staff, which makes the basic idea of AI moot as it's
not
>truly autonomous) and a tactical (and possibly strategic) stalemate.

I agree. But I don't subscribe to the theory that a true AI would be
incabable of learning. See James P. Hogan's _Two Faces of Tomorrow_ (I
think
that's the name of the book, it's been a long time since I read it). An
AI
is set up in a space station and programmed to defend itself. It comes
as
quite a shock when the machine learns to defend itself at a rate far
faster
than a human being (and without all the psychological baggage that goes
along with human learning experiences).

>The ability for independent, spontaneous thought in AI can also have
severe
>side effects. What if the unit in question learned to ask the question
>"why?"?

Now THAT is the best reason I've seen for not letting computers run the
show. On the other hand, see the Hyperion books (particularly the first
two)
by Dan Simmons. By the second book, you find that the AIs running human
space have realized that things would be more efficient and safer if
they
simply did away with all these humans...

Allan Goodall:	agoodall@sympatico.ca 
"You'll want to hear about my new obsession.
 I'm riding high upon a deep depression. 
 I'm only happy when it rains."    - Garbage