is logic allways right?

[Caprice]

i whold love a super computer to be put inchage of the world nuclear missels!

Does anyone else think this would be a terrible idea??

I don't. A computer is not likely to be depressed because its spouse left it, is not likely to have suicidal tendencies, or religious fanaticism, or a political agenda, all of the things that makes a human much, much, much more dangerous than a computer.

A computer is also incapable of caring about all of the lives it would sacrifice by using a nuclear weapon.

 

[malclave]

A computer is also incapable of caring about all of the lives it would sacrifice by using a nuclear weapon.

More generally, IMO, it would be biased due to the (emotional) beliefs of its programmers. Any value judgement it would be required to make would be influenced by the emotions of the people who assigned the "weight" to certain variables.

Simple example (though of a decision at a local, rather than a national, level):

A couple of teenaged hikers are missing. The weather has been bad, and is going to get worse (blizzard, flooding, whatever); it is unlikely that they will survive the night. Going out to look for them is dangerous for the searchers. Should a search party be sent?

Going purely by logic, the decision would be based on the value assigned to the two teenagers' lives, as compared to the value assigned to the searchers' lives multiplied by the risk level.

 

[Caprice]

More generally, IMO, it would be biased due to the (emotional) beliefs of its programmers.

Indeed, but this is not the same as really caring. It is a simulation of caring--or perhaps more a reflection of the caring of it's programmer.

Going purely by logic, the decision would be based on the value assigned to the two teenagers' lives, as compared to the value assigned to the searchers' lives multiplied by the risk level.

Exactly right. Taking the human element out of the choice though. People are able to make value judgements that involve much more complex variables, as well as differing values for those variables based on other variables, and so on and so forth.

I'm not sure that a computer program could ever be written to accomodate the number of calculations that go through a human mind in such a situation as the one you described, let alone one more complex.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

No, Chuck Norris is always right

 

[Caprice]

No, Chuck Norris is always right

I thought that was a status reserved only for the Radioactive Monkey... *confused*

 

[Spartan117]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vietcong
i whold love a super computer to be put inchage of the world nuclear missels!

Does anyone else think this would be a terrible idea??


sounds like terminator all over again...terminator part 4 maybe? go back in time again..

 

[Bozo Erectus]

say thear was a computer, that was 100 logical in every way.
it was not programed with emotion, with simpathy, or greed.
nothing put pure logic.

how efective whold it be ar runing a nation?

We'd hate it, but it would probably take care of alot of the problems we allow to fester and worsen. Computers dont have to worry about reelection, and raising money.

 

[Verbose]

say thear was a computer, that was 100 logical in every way.
it was not programed with emotion, with simpathy, or greed.
nothing put pure logic.

That's actually a really old question.

So old it was put by the medieval scolastic philosohers, but like this:

"Let's assume there's a perfectly logical ass [the way they put, not me]. It's decisions are made by pure logic. Now let's assume it's stuck between two perfectly equal tapers of hay. Result: The perfectly logical ass dies of starvation unable to pick one over the other."

Just exchange "ass" for "computer" here. (Those old guys were of course discussing whether God was running thigs based on pure logic or not.)

You need the capacity to make arbitrary decisions. In a computer you'd use some kind of random chance generator. It would likely be working overtime with the logic circuits twiddling its thumbs.

 

[warpus]

We'd hate it, but it would probably take care of alot of the problems we allow to fester and worsen. Computers dont have to worry about reelection, and raising money.

The problem is that computers rely on absolutes - whereas our world is a world of relatives.

"Let's assume there's a perfectly logical ass [the way they put, not me]. It's decisions are made by pure logic. Now let's assume it's stuck between two perfectly equal tapers of hay. Result: The perfectly logical ass dies of starvation unable to pick one over the other."

Of course if the ass was perfectly logical, it would realize that it's getting hungry and it'd randomly pick one of the stacks of hay.

What you're describing is just an ass that uses logic - but hasn't been programmed correctly.

 

[Ecclesiastes]

Logic isnt always rite

 

[Verbose]

The problem is that computers rely on absolutes - whereas our world is a world of relatives.

Of course if the ass was perfectly logical, it would realize that it's getting hungry and it'd randomly pick one of the stacks of hay.

What you're describing is just an ass that uses logic - but hasn't been programmed correctly.

The programming requires a random chance generator for situations like that yes.
But the point is that if you always and only rely of perfect logic, then you can't make an arbitraty decision like that.
And most decisions would likely still have to be made by the chance generator. Which in the end is about as sensible as throwing dice, especially since you've got this machine capable of producing perfect logic doing it.

 

[AL_DA_GREAT]

The most important skill when running a country is managing people.

 

[Caprice]

The most important skill when running a country is managing people.

"I'm not a people person, I'm a people computer..."

Good point AL_DA.