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From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Definitions of intelligence and complexity
Summary: Is worrying the antonym of thinking?
Keywords: Social construct, productivity measure
Message-ID: <6973@venera.isi.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 88 03:42:06 GMT
References: <448@uceng.UC.EDU> <42327@linus.UUCP>
Sender: news@venera.isi.edu
Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar)
Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute
Lines: 18

In article <42327@linus.UUCP> bwk@mbunix (Kort) writes:
>
>By the way, my own working definition of intelligence is the
>ability to think and solve problems.  (I define thinking as
>a rational form of information processing which conceives
>solutions to outstanding problems, generates goal-achieving
>courses of action, and reduces the entropy or uncertainty of
>a knowledge base.  The antonym of thinking is worrying, an
>emotional form of information processing which fails to
>generate solutions to outstanding problems, fails to generate
>goal-achieving courses of action, and fail to reduce the
>entropy or uncertainty of a knowldege base.)
>
In THE SOCIETY OF MIND, Marvin Minsky makes a plausible case for
the possibility that worrying, as well as other emotions, may actually
play a productive role in our ability to solve problems.  I'm not yet
sure I buy into his argument, but it gives me reason to think twice about
Barry's antonymic stand.