[NCLUG] Sigs, was:Re: NCLUG LinkedIn Group

[Chad Perrin]

On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 10:10:26PM -0600, Alan Silverstein wrote:
> > Requires a rebuttal ...
> 
> Reminds me of this:
> 
> "A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do."
> 
> And:
> 
> "I suppose when it gets to that point, we shan't know how it does it."
> -- Turing
> 
> He was speaking of AI, but the points of these quotes are that we
> already program computers so complicatedly that they become
> unpredictable (dishonest?), and the more they seem or act intelligent,
> the more this will be true.

The underlying truth of the matter, however, is that computers are still
honest.  That just involves reporting what is valid within the framework
of the premises to which the computer is constrained, however -- not that
its answers are *true*.

I recall that Heinlein quote from my reading of the book, though, and
found it amusing.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
awj @reddit: "The terms never and always are never always true."