Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!SDCSVAX.UCSD.EDU!cottrell%ics From: cottrell%ics@SDCSVAX.UCSD.EDU.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: thinking about thinking not being science Message-ID: <8707070019.AA28091@sdics.ICS> Date: Mon, 6-Jul-87 20:19:38 EDT Article-I.D.: sdics.8707070019.AA28091 Posted: Mon Jul 6 20:19:38 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jul-87 13:46:12 EDT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Distribution: world Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 35 Approved: ailist@stripe.sri.com In article <8707030236.AA29872@flash.bellcore.com> amsler@FLASH.BELLCORE.COM (Robert Amsler) writes: >I think Don Norman's argument is true for cognitive psychologists, >but may not be true for AI researchers. The reason is that the two >groups seek different answers. [....] Speculating about flight might >lead to building other types of aircraft (as certainly those now >humorous old films of early aviation experiments show), but it would >certainly be a bad procedure to follow to understand birds and how >they fly. In fact, the Wright Brothers spent quite a bit of time studying how birds fly, and as a recent Scientific American notes, we may still have a lot to learn from natural systems. A piece of Dennis Conner's boat was based on a whale's tailfin. I think Don's point was that many times AI researchers spend a lot of time theorizing about how humans work, and then use that as justification for their designs for AI systems, without ever consulting the facts. It is certainly true that Cognitive Scientists and AI researchers are at different ends of a spectrum (from NI (Natural Intelligence) to AI), but it would be foolish for AI researchers not to take hints from the best example of an intelligient being we have. On the other hand, it is not appropriate for a medical expert system to make the same mistakes doctors do - sometimes a criterion for a "good" cognitive model. gary cottrell Institute for Cognitive Science C-015 UCSD, La Jolla, Ca. 92093 cottrell@nprdc.arpa (ARPA) (or perhaps cottrell%ics@cs.ucsd.edu) {ucbvax,decvax,akgua,dcdwest}!sdcsvax!sdics!cottrell (USENET) ********************************************************************** THE FUTURE'S SO BRIGHT I GOTTA WEAR SHADES - Timbuk 3 **********************************************************************