Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!mailrus!ukma!gatech!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence
Summary: Robots need feelings.  Learning machines need emotions.
Keywords: Feelings, Emotions, Intelligence, Learning
Message-ID: <42341@linus.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 88 02:51:16 GMT
References: <484@soleil.UUCP> <1654@hp-sdd.HP.COM> <1908@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <1791@cadre.dsl.PITTSBURGH.EDU> <1918@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> <44150@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> <281@esosun.UUCP>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Barry Kort)
Organization: Hysterics Associates, Lake Placid
Lines: 22

In article <281@esosun.UUCP> jackson@freyja.css.gov (Jerry Jackson) writes:

> ... why does everyone
>assume that an intelligent machine would be a *feeling* being?  

An ambulatory robot would be well advised to have a sensory alarm
system to report mechanical stress in its limbs.  Otherwise it is
liable to damage itself while navigating through a hazardous
environment.

An intelligent machine that seeks to explore and learn about the
world in which it is embedded would be well advised to have an
emotional system which monitors its success or failure in knowledge
acquisition.  Successful lines of investigation would thereby be
encouraged, while fruitless efforts would be abandoned in favor
of a fresh tack.

By monitoring its emotions, a learning system would also know whether
to report its progress or ask for assistance when its mentor inquires,
"How are you doing, today?"

--Barry Kort