Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Question 1

What is a computer?

Answer 1

• John Haugeland (1985) defined a computer as an interpreted, automatic, formal system

Question 2

What is a formal system?

Answer 2

• A formal system is like a game in which tokens are manipulated according to rules.
• There are three essential properties of formal systems: “token manipulation”, “digitality” and “finite playability”
• They are also self-contained, and decomposable into totally algorithmic processes. This means that it is multiply realizable and cannot contain homunculi

Question 3

What are the requirements of defining a “token manipulation game?”

Answer 3

You need to specify: • What the tokens are • What their starting configuration is • What the rules are

Question 4

What is the earliest investigation of non-brain like structures?

Answer 4

• Came from Warren McCulloh and Walter Pitts in 1943; they viewed the neuron as a kind of ‘logic threshold’
• McCulloch and Pitts showed how to encode a various logical propositions in networks of these units.

Question 5

What is connectionism?

Answer 5

• Described as the ‘brain’ model of the mind.
• Neurophysiology is an inspiration for connectionist models
• Also called parallel distributed processing
• Heart of the connectionist approach: “Intelligence emerges from the interactions of large numbers of simple processing units”

Question 6

What is a digital system?

Answer 6

• A set of positive and reliable techniques for producing and re-identifying tokens or configurations of tokens from some pre-specified set of types
• Elegant definition: a digital system is a set of positive write/read techniques.

Question 7

What did Turing mean when he used the term “unorganized machines”?

Answer 7

• It was his conception of brain like structures for performing computations
• These were networks of interconnected neuron like structures
• Turing claimed that they are “about the simplest model of a nervous system”.

Question 8

When was the ‘connectionist’ bible released?

Answer 8

1986

Question 9

What is multiple realisability?

Answer 9

• It is the most important relationship between functionalism an AI.

Question 10

What is a reliable technique (in the context of digital systems)?

Answer 10

• A technique is reliable if it has a high probability of success

Question 11

What is a positive technique (in the context of digital systems)?

Answer 11

• A technique is positive if you can succeed completely by using it
• Note: A positive technique isnt guaranteed to succeed
• Example: Counting people in a room.
• Non-example: Going on a date, Writing a novel

Question 12

Who is the grandfather of the dynamical approach to AI?

Answer 12

David Hume - he wanted to be the Newton of the mind and figure out the laws of consciousness

Question 13

What is meaning holism? Why is it a challenge for strong AI?

Answer 13

• One thing that makes meaning hard to formalize is the possibility of meaning holism
• This is the idea that to understand one word, you need to understand others, and to understand them, you must understand others

Question 14

Describe computational functionalism.

Answer 14

• It is the view that mental states and events (i.e pain, beleifs, desires, thoughts..) are computational states of the brain.