"Sure, the idea that a higher intelligence can emerge from a network of
lower organisms, as a hive emerges out of a swarm of bees, can be a
liberating one; as if maybe millions of bored drones keystroking in their
cubicles, contrary to what common sense and Dilbert will tell you, are
collectively making something brilliant. "
Now I have to read it.
Go Borg!
Lisa
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Baker [mailto:distobj@acm.org]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 1998 7:54 PM
To: Lisa Dusseault (Exchange); 'fork@xent.ics.uci.edu'
Subject: Re: Book Review -- Darwin Among the machines
At 02:01 PM 8/6/98 -0700, Lisa Dusseault (Exchange) wrote:
>Darwin Among the Machines
>Written by George Dyson (son of Freeman, brother of Esther)
>
>Mark already posted a glowing review of this book. I was a little
>disappointed in the book, so decided to write my own review. Mark, I don't
>disagree with your review -- there were many interesting ideas. But
perhaps
>my expectations, and what I wanted to get out of the book, were out of line
>with what the book provided. I wanted good analysis and strong
conclusions,
Oh yeah, I can definitely see that. But I knew going in that it was a
historic walk-through rather than pie-in-the-sky futurism.
George dropped me a note a few weeks after my FoRK post (he was
ego-surfing), and I asked him if he had read "Out of Control" (Kevin Kelly).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0201483408/forkrecommendedrA/
It turns out that he and Kevin had the same editor, and that both books
were written more or less simultaneously. He thought the books contrasted
each other well - his, a look back, and Kevin's, a look at the
current/future (though I still haven't finished it).
But I notice it's still online at;
http://www.absolutvodka.com/kelly/5-0.html, part of a larger Kevin Kelly
forum, http://www.absolutvodka.com/kelly/1-1.html
>The problem of the major premise (evolution causing artificial
>intelligence), as I see it, is that selection pressure doesn't necessarily
>mean selection for intelligence. We like to believe, as humans, that
>intelligence is the pinnacle of evolution and therefore the primary goal,
>but it doesn't seem to be true: "survival" can be due to many other
factors
>besides intelligence. Selective pressure is applied to computers and
>networks to make them more useful to us, not more intelligent.
Tell ya what Lisa. You bring me a living non-organic machine, and then
we'll chat about how intelligent it is. Deal? 8-)
I thought Dyson was speaking more on artificial *life*, not artificial
intelligence per se.
>You might want to borrow it from a library since it's more of an
interesting
>read than a reference to keep around.
Certainly, but book shelves filled with reference material look kinda dry
(and for good reason).
MB
-- Mark Baker. CTO, Beduin Communications Corp Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA http://www.beduin.com