Three AI Koans

i.

A disciple of another sect once came to Drescher as he was eating his morning meal.

"I would like to give you this personality test," said the outsider, "because I want you to be happy."

Drescher took the paper that was offered him and put it into the toaster:

"I wish the toaster to be happy, too."

ii.

In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.

"What are you doing?" asked Minsky.

"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe."

"Why is the net wired randomly?" asked Minsky.

"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play."

Minsky shut his eyes.

"Why do you close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher.

"So that the room will be empty."

At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

back