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Re6: Interface

On what AI is or isn't, and whether it's between things.

Air date: Sunday, 25th Oct. 2020, 07 : 20 PM Pacific/US.

1 No one knows what AI is

Suppose we did know. We should be able to answer at least one of the following questions.

Six questions ∙ Who is AI? This doesn't feel like a question we can ask yet. ∙ Where is AI? In the computers? In a robot? Where is the AI in a super computer AI warehouse? It could be in the bare metal. But if the power is off, is that still AI? Maybe it's in the electricity. But electricity is hard to think about.1 Maybe it's in the patterns of something, as revealed by the passage of time. But where, specifically, is the AI? Is it the whole pattern? Part of it? ∙ When is AI? When is anything? When is now? We need atomic clocks and a philosophy of experience to do serious work on 'when' questions. ∙ How is AI? That's a weird question. We'll skip it for now. ∙ Why is AI? This leads to a chain reaction: 'Because somebody built it.' Why did they build it? etc. ∙ Which is AI? All the other 'W' questions can be interpreted as 'which' questions, since they can be seen as selecting from a group. Which is AI?

In Ma4: Assumptions (A Wrestling Match)2 I said that the big AI stuff will make you question your cup of coffee. Here we go.

AI is an ocean

Thoughts about AI are widespread. Movies about AI are familiar.

There is an ocean of stuff going on out there—strategic intelligence, artificial intelligence, natural intelligence. (Remember, Retraice is about 'what's going on out there'.)

2 Herbert Simon on 'the artificial'

Simon, along with Allen Newell, wrote significant early AI programs. Simon also won the Nobel prize in economics.3

An interface

Side note: the term 'artificial intelligence' was coined by John McCarthy in 1955.4 We can distinguish artifact and artifice, but he probably didn't.

Simon says artifacts are like interfaces.

"An artifact can be thought of as a meeting point—an 'interface' in today's terms—between an 'inner' environment, the substance and organization of the artifact itself, and an 'outer' environment, the surrounds in which it operates. If the inner environment is appropriate to the outer environment, or vice versa, the artifact will serve its intended purpose."5

Artifacts

Artifacts include: a watch, a computer, a keyboard, a highlighter, a cup of coffee, a sticky note.

A battery

Inside, its a chemistry experiment. Outside, it is two leads, and a label with color and style. It's put together in just the right way so that we get power out of it, if we use it in just the right way.

Goals and environments

Perhaps artifacts are interfaces between goals and environments.

Where's the goal? When is it? Which goal?

Goals connected to batteries

Think of the many people—and goals—involved in the production of a battery. Do the goals branch off from the path, the destiny of the battery? Or do they accrue to it? Are they drawn to it in some sense?

Where is a goal? Where is a computer program? Where is a thought? (Where is AI?)

Simple and complex artifacts

A battery is simple. Artificial intelligence is either complicated or complex. But they're both artifacts.

3 Amendments, corrections

I said that Bruce Schneier was a physicist, but he only studied physics.

We found the Dulles quote about conspiracy.6

Russell said something like what O'Shea said, but in 1921.7

References

Amdahl, K. (1991). There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings. Clearwater Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN: 0962781592. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0962781592 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0962781592 https://lccn.loc.gov/91203772

Margin (2020/10/22). Ma4: Assumptions (A Wrestling Match). retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/ma4 Retrieved 24th Oct. 2020.

Retraice (2020/09/07). Re1: Three Kinds of Intelligence. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re1 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Retraice (2020/09/11). Re5: Hints From Inside. retraice.com. https://www.retraice.com/segments/re5 Retrieved 22nd Sep. 2020.

Russell, S., & Norvig, P. (2020). Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Pearson, 4th ed. ISBN: 978-0134610993. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=978-0134610993 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+978-0134610993 https://lccn.loc.gov/2019047498

Simon, H. A. (1996). The Sciences of the Artificial. MIT, 3rd ed. ISBN: 0262691914. Searches: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=0262691914 https://www.google.com/search?q=isbn+0262691914 https://lccn.loc.gov/96012633 Previous editions available at: https://archive.org/search.php?query=The%20sciences%20of%20the%20artificial

1Amdahl (1991)

2Margin (2020/10/22) at 46:45 min.

3Russell & Norvig (2020) p. 10, p. 18.

4Russell & Norvig (2020) p. 18.

5Simon (1996) p. 6.

6Retraice (2020/09/11) p. 1 note 2.

7Retraice (2020/09/07) p. 1 note 4.