Top-Down Engineering of AI

The philosophers’ fascination with propositions was mirrored in good old-fashioned AI, the AI of John McCarthy, early Marvin Minsky, and Allen Newell, Herbert Simon, and Cliff Shaw. It was the idea that the way to make an intelligent agent was from the top down. You have a set of propositions in some proprietary formulation. It’s not going to be English—well, maybe LISP or something like that, where you define all the predicates and the operators. Then, you have this huge database that is bea...

 Astrology as a False Science

"Excuse me," she said hesitantly, "but what effect do these minor planets have on our behavior and fortunes? I mean, you know, astrological influence?" He looked at her. "None." "None at all?" "No." "But if the planets affect our fortunes—" She stumbled to a stop at the dispassionately scornful look on the pale man's face, the slow way he shook his head. "Surely you'll agree that the planets order and control our destinies?" "They do not." "Not at all?" "No." "Then what does? Control ...

 Harry Potter and the Fundamental Attribution Error

“You saved them from You-Know-Who,” McGonagall said. “How should they not care?” Harry looked up at McGonagall and sighed. “I suppose there’s no chance that if I said fundamental attribution error you’d have any idea what that meant.” McGonagall shook her head. “No, but please explain.” “Well...” Harry said, trying to figure out how to describe that particular bit of Muggle science. “Suppose you come into work and see your coworker kicking his desk. You think, ‘what an angry person he must...

 The Origin of the Name "Roots and Shoots"

The name is symbolic. The first pale roots and shoots of a germinating seed look so tiny and fragile; it's hard to believe it can grow into a big tree. Yet there is so much life force in that seed that the roots can work their way through boulders to reach the water, and the shoot can work its way through cracks in a brick wall to reach the sunlight. Eventually the boulders and the wall—all the harm, environmental and social, that has resulted from our greed, cruelty, and lack of understandin...

 Skepticism is Not Enough

As I've tried to stress, at the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly sceptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The collective enterprise of creative thinking and sceptical thinking, working together, keeps the field on track. Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some ...